The Demon Behind The Mask
by Delais Starlight
Summary: When the Kyuubi nearly broke free, Naruto was fundamentally changed. His mind may be similar to the Naruto of old, but his body and instincts belong more to the Kyuubi. How much of his former self remains, and why has he returned to the village he hates?
1. Default Chapter

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) _Constructive _criticism is perfectly fine, compliments are also nice.

3) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

4) The age of the characters in this first chapter is 16. It stops following the anime/manga right around where Sasuke defects. I don't know what happens, so for this story, I am assuming he was successful.

Shikamaru grimaced as his team raced through the Stone Country territory, darting between boulders. It was definitely a blown mission. As he ran, his guilt weighed heavily on him. The mission had failed, and his best friend was probably dead because of his failure to create an adequate plan.

Stone ninja had been sighted along the Leaf border quite frequently as of late; there were even some sightings inside of Leaf territory. Tsunade had sent Gai's old team to investigate, posing as part of a merchant caravan from the Wave country. Tenten's message had come through underground channels, warning that they had uncovered the Stone village's plans, but were about to be captured. The Hokage had ordered a rescue mission immediately.

Shikamaru was to lead Ino and Chouji, his partners from his genin days; they worked well as a team, due to their years of experience with each other. Also attached to Shikamaru's team were Naruto and Sakura. The two students of the legendary sannin were used to working with Shikamaru's team, and their skills were needed. Sakura's healing abilities were second only to those of Tsunade; Naruto, with his legendary stamina and determination, had become - under Jiraiya's tutelage - one of the most devastating ninja that Konoha could call upon. Combined with Shikamaru's planning skills, Ino's infiltration jutsu, and Chouji's power, it was expected that the five of them would be able to break out their comrades without too much difficulty.

It had gone well at first. They had reached the Stone village without incident, and Ino had even managed to possess one of the guards with her mind swap jutsu. Before any of the other guards had figured out what was going on, Ino had released the captive Leaf ninja, and the group had begun to sneak out. That was where the plan started falling apart: another guard had reported for the shift change early; finding he cells empty, he had sounded an alarm.

Sakura was doing her best to heal the three rescued ninja, but it wasn't going well; the Stone interrogators had certainly done their work on them, and she needed more time. Time, however, was a luxury that they no longer had. The Konoha ninja had fled, with Stone elites in close pursuit. Chouji had held back, saying that he would buy the others time. And so, Shikamaru had begun to tear himself apart inside.

He had been too confident in his team's abilities. He was sure that they would be able to complete the mission with ease. He should have planned for a guard to show early. Any proper planner should consider unforeseen events. He glanced at the wounded ninja Naruto was carrying.

"Neji, do we still have anyone following us?"

The Hyuga branch member raised his head. The veins around his eyes puffed out as he activated his family's bloodline limit. Straining for a moment, he gazed back in the direction they had fled from, before slumping back in exhaustion.

"All six of them are still coming. They'll be on us in a couple of minutes. There's no sign of Chouji. I really don't think that he slowed them down. I'm sorry, Shikamaru."

It was confirmed. He had allowed his best friend to die for nothing. It was all his fault. Moisture stinging his eyes, he glanced towards Ino. Her gaze met his, tears falling down her cheeks as well. He felt a pain flash through his chest. They were all in danger, and she was the weakest out of the combat capable ninja. If it came to fighting, she had the lowest chance of making it out alright. His mouth opened, his thoughts being expressed in a single word.

"No."

Ino's face showed worry as she examined him.

"Shikamaru?"

"No. It's my fault we're in trouble. I'm the one who didn't plan the operation carefully enough."

She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off.

"I've already killed my best friend, I'm not about to let my girlfriend die. You guys go on, I'll stay behind and buy you some time with my shadow bind jutsu."

Naruto landed beside Shikamaru, motioning for him to take Neji from him. "You guys go on. I'll hold them off."

Shikamaru shook his head. "No, Naruto. It's my fault that we're in trouble, and I'll get us out."

"No, you won't." Naruto was adamant, his tone clearly showing that his mind was made up.

"You're upset because your plan failed, but you're still the smartest one of us. You need to keep going. If anything else happens, you're going to need to be the one to figure something out. And besides that, I'm not about to let any more of my friends die."

Shikamaru leapt over a rock before staring at Naruto. No one had stopped running during the entire conversation.

"You're my friend. What makes you think I'll let you die?"

"It's the smart thing to do. You want to throw your life away to try and slow them down." Naruto gave a predatory grin, and Shikamaru had to repress a shudder. He could have sworn that Naruto's eyes had flashed red for a second. "I guarantee that I'll take them with me."

Shikamaru stared at him for a few seconds, clearly debating what Naruto had said. Finally he nodded his head, reaching out to take Neji from Naruto.

As soon as Shikamaru had taken Neji, Naruto vanished, appearing beside Sakura. In one fluid motion, he reached beneath his shirt, and pulled his necklace over his head. He gave it to Sakura, who slid it into a pocket on her chuunin vest.

"Make sure that gets back to Granny Tsunade, okay Sakura-chan?"

Fighting back tears, the pink haired kunoichi nodded.

"Thanks. I'm sorry, but I guess that I've broken my promise to bring Sasuke back. Can you maybe forgive me, Sakura-chan?"

Tears were falling down her face as she answered the second question. "Of course, Naruto."

"Alright, you guys all get going, and I'll get ready for our friends back there. Do not come back to back me up! No matter what happens, I am dead. And friend or foe, after I unleash the jutsu I've got planned, I'll kill everyone I see.

"Shikamaru, tell the Hokage I used a new technique I call Primary Seal Unbinding jutsu. She'll understand what it means.

"So long everyone. Good luck in the future."

With a wave and a smile perfected by years of forced cheerfulness, Naruto dropped back, watching his friends' forms shrink as they continued on. He stripped his jacket and shirt off, and pulled out a kunai. Clenching his teeth, he sunk the blade into his arm, dragging it down and tearing his flesh open. He could feel the demon's chakra flowing through him, trying to regenerate the wound. Naruto concentrated, trying to block the flow of Kyuubi's energy. It was partially successful; the wound was still healing, but much slower than it normally would. Forming his fingers into a cross, Naruto brought forth a single kage bunshin. Looking at each other, they nodded, the shadow clone moving directly behind Naruto.

"Alright, let's get to work."

The Stone ninja were moving quickly, desperate to catch up to the escaped prisoners and their rescuers. Taraiyo led; he was confident in his party's ability to recapture their quarry. He looked to his right, at his two injured teammates. They had been the ones to engage the fat ninja that had stayed behind to buy his comrades more time to escape. He and the other three had simply bypassed them, continuing the pursuit. The fat one hadn't even been able to occupy the two for five minutes before they caught back up. Still, it wouldn't do to assume that they were completely uninjured.

"Matsu, Ichiharo. Are you two still able to fight at top form?"

Matsu merely nodded without turning his head; it was next to impossible to get any words out of him. Ichiharo, however, had no such compulsions about making his feelings known.

"That piece-of-shit bastard was a lot tougher than he looked, Taraiyo. He only got one clean hit on me, but I'm pretty sure it cracked a couple of ribs. If Matsu hadn't been able to get his genjutsu on him, I suspect it could have gone a lot differently."

"Alright, you just hang back when we catch the others. Try to focus on some of your mid-range jutsu, and support whoever needs it most.

"Remember everyone, four of us are still fresh, Matsu can still fight, and Ichiharo is still capable of ranged support. They only have four ninja who are in any shape to fight, and they'll need to defend their three comrades they tried to rescue. As long as we play this smart, we can easily win. Remember, we're all members of Hidden Stone's Elite."

"Taraiyo!"

The squad leader looked ahead of him. Miria had her head tilted back. She motioned for the squad to stop, and turned slowly, facing into the breeze. He could see her nostrils flaring as she took in the air.

"The wind just shifted. It's bringing their scents back, but something isn't right. One of them is way too strong."

Taraiyo's brows narrowed; he didn't like surprises. They represented problems for his team, and it was up to him to try and figure them out.

"Another diversion staying behind? We can just bypass him pretty easily, can't we?"

Miria shook her head.

"I wouldn't recommend it. It's too strong a scent to just be because he's closer than the others. It's like there's more than one of him. If we bypass them, we could find ourselves being the ones pursued."

"So you're saying that there's a second squad waiting, to buy the original team time to escape?"

"No, it doesn't make any sense. I said that it was too strong a smell to be only one person, but it's only one persons scent. It can't be both, but as far as I can tell, it is."

Taraiyo rubbed his temples, sighing.

"Alright, here's the plan. This new group is just there to slow us down, but we can't afford to go around them. If we do, they just follow us, and we end up horribly outnumbered and surrounded. We're going in. We hit them hard and fast, take them down, and continue the pursuit. Those spies may have discovered them, and we're not about to let them get home and report, okay? Good, then let's go, we don't have a lot of time to waste."

The group took off once more, moving at top speed. After several minutes, Mirai again held up her hand. The group came to a stop, eyes darting from side to side, looking for the enemy. The country was named Stone for a reason, as was abundantly clear now.

"It's here."

"Well?" Tarayo's voice echoed off the rocks. "Come on out, we're here to fight you, you're here to fight us. We might as well get this over with."

Stepping out from behind various rocks came the ninja of Konoha. Ino, Shikamaru, and Sakura moved into the open, taking battle stances. Naruto appeared last, leaping onto the boulder that he had been behind. He looked down angrily at his teammates.

'I told you to not to come back."

Shikamaru shook his head, a look of annoyance on his face. "I told you, Naruto; I'm not going to lose any more teammates."

Sakura tossed her head, throwing her pink hair behind her back. "You promised me you'd bring Sasuke-kun back. I'm not letting you off with finding a way out of it."

"And I need you to bring Sasuke-kun back so I can steal him away from forehead girl." Ino winked, but did not take her eyes off the Stone ninja. "It looks like we all need you alive after all."

Naruto grinned, turning his right palm upwards, a swirling blue ball of chakra appearing within it. "Alright then, like that idiot there said, let's get this over with. I want to go home and eat some ramen." Chakra collected in his feet, and he propelled himself off his boulder, palm outstretched. He streaked downwards, heading for Mirai, the closest target. "Rasengan!"

As she leapt backwards, the other three ninja charged, drawing kunai as they ran.

Ino had barely taken three steps when a kunai pierced her throat. Her hands went to her neck as she collapsed to the ground. Shikamaru whirled around, pain etched across his face. "Ino-chan!"

Jago, one of the Stone ninja, darted forwards, a katana drawn. Before the heartbroken shinobi could turn to defend himself, the blade stabbed straight through Shikamaru's heart.

As Mirai and Illyera engaged Naruto and Sakura, Taraiyo glanced around uneasily. This was way too easy, something was wrong. As Mirai and Illyera both landed blows, it became clear. All four ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Rasengan!"

Taraiyo spun at the sound of the voice, just in time to see Ichiharo struck in the chest. The rasengan's blast carried the unfortunate ninja into one of the rocks littering the battlefield. There was a sickening crunch, and he landed face down. His neck was clearly at an unnatural angle and he was not moving. Naruto crouched facing his opponents, glaring at them. He stood silently, allowing them time to take the sight in.

He wore nothing from the waist up, having removed even his forehead protector. His frame was clearly well muscled, packed tight, suggesting both incredible strength as well as a high level of dexterity. By far however, the most noticeable trait was the seals running over his body. His stomach, chest, forehead, even his arms and back were covered in fresh seals, all of them drawn in blood. He spoke without a sliver of emotion in his voice. "I'm sorry about your friend, but you all need to go home."

Taraiyo took a single step forward, motioning for Jago to check on the fallen Ichiharo. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow that. You see, we need to catch your comrades that appear to have left you behind."

"No. I can't let you to do that."

"I see, but try to understand. There's still five of us, compared to one of you. And furthermore…" He trailed off as rock erupted from the ground, imprisoning Naruto up to his ankles. "You're in a very poor position to negotiate from."

Naruto began to raise his right hand to his face. "Final warning, go home or we all die."

"Oh, really?" Taraiyo stretched his right hand forwards. Naruto recognized the gesture; it looked very similar to Gaara's when he activated his desert funeral.

"Too late." As he spoke, he bit into his thumb. Drawing it down, he formed a diagonal line of blood over the seals he had etched onto his stomach. As the rock around his ankles began to shoot upwards, red chakra surged out of Naruto, blowing the stones away.

If the Stone elites had understood what was going on they would have run. Akatsuki had been chasing Naruto for four years now, desperate to get their hands on the Kyuubi. They had made many attempts in those four years, and there had been a couple of close calls.

It had been Naruto who had first asked Jiraiya that they talk to Tsunade about it. It was Naruto that had spoken to the two sannin on the dangers of the Kyuubi being unleashed, and Naruto who had proposed the solution for it.

More layers of seals. They had spent most of a year researching it. Naruto was sure that if he were to be tested, he would display ANBU levels of knowledge on binding seals. Together, the Naruto, his sensei, and the Hokage had worked out everything they had wanted to do, and had begun adding further seals to Naruto's body, making them impossible to detect unless you expected to find them.

They had created a second seal to imprison the demon. It was designed to be activated if the Fourth's seal ever failed. It wouldn't stop the Kyuubi from taking control of Naruto's body as the original did, but it would still bind the demons soul inside, preventing it from escaping back to the spirit world. And once it activated so would the third layer of seals, designed to utterly destroy Naruto. His body would cease to function, and both he and the demon would be destroyed. The seals would take some time to kill Naruto however, probably a couple of minutes. The problem was, during that time, the demon would be in control. And Naruto had just completed the final line needed to disable the Fourth's seal, giving its power to the other two.

It was simple as far as Naruto was concerned. Since the new seals had been added, he had been unable to draw on Kyuubi's power as easily as he had before. It was a problem, but he was willing to deal with it in order to ensure that the Akatsuki would never get their hands on the demon.

He had seen Stone elites in action before, and he knew what kind of strength to expect from them. Six in a row, he could possibly take, but not six at once. Even with the demon adding to his power he didn't think he would be able to do it. So he unbound the first seal, and relaxed. He could feel the demon surging through him, and he relaxed, allowing the demon to gain control. Let Kyuubi have control of his body. Give the demon access to all of its power. Let it tear his enemies apart while his friends ran. He had volunteered to stay behind; he was dead either way.

Had the Stone ninja understood all of this, they would have run. But they had no way to understand what their opponent had just done, and so they stood their ground.

Kyuubi bent his knees and leapt, and Naruto soared into the air, tearing himself out of the rock prison he had been in. He landed, and his eyes were red, the pupils slits. He darted forwards with an animalistic keen, his hands becoming claws. As he reached Jago, he tore out his throat. The stone ninja tried to oppose him but it was hopeless. Sixteen years ago, the entire village of Konoha had tried to stop the demon's rampage, and had failed. None of the remaining four ninja were as strong as the Fourth Hokage, and they had no chance. It was over in barely a minute. Naruto stood amid the carnage, his tongue spilling out to lap the blood up from his claws.

Throwing back his head, the demon keened again in triumph. It was free of its seal, free to rain death down on the insignificant humans that had imprisoned it. It could feel Naruto locked in the corners of his own mind. He was starting to worry. He knew he couldn't regain control from the demon, what if the final seals weren't strong enough to defeat it? Kyuubi could feel the chakra of the seals welling up within him, preparing to release, but they were nothing compared to the awesomeness of his power. He threw his arms open, and tilted his head to the sky, in a macabre imitation of a person greeting the new dawn. He grinned at the concept; this was his new dawn, his new day. All he had to do was defeat the meaningless protections that had been placed upon his vessel and…

Pain screamed through his body. Falling to his knees, the demon pitched forwards, breaking his fall with his paws. Chakra screamed through his body, tearing at organs, and piercing his brain. This was not right, the humans were not supposed to be this strong. He released chakra to regenerate his damaged organs, but the seals on Naruto's body simply responded by focusing more chakra into those areas. His claws dug furrows into the ground; he kept his teeth clenched together, out of fear that if he opened his mouth he would bite through his tongue. He could beat these seals; he just needed time to unravel them. As chakra burned further into his brain, his vision began to blur from the pain. There was no time.

Ignoring the pain, the Kyuubi threw all of his chakra outwards, ignoring the damage the seals were doing to him. He was enraged. There was no way he would allow the miserable piece of filth who had imprisoned him for so long to actually succeed in his plan. The seals imprisoning him began to glow as he threw his chakra against them. His claws and fangs grew a little longer, and he shut his eyes, concentrating.

A tremendous snapping noise echoed off the rocks, and a tail shot forth, tearing through Naruto's pants, and the Kyuubi screamed at the burning sensation in his head. A second one followed, along with another scream. A jerk paralyzed Naruto's body, and it collapsed face down on the ground.

Hinata spun, striking the practice log, sweat dripping down her brow. She rained more blows down on the log. She needed to become stronger. Strong enough to be considered a true ninja. Strong enough to win Naruto-kun's approval. For when he returned from his mission, she would tell him her feelings for him; no matter how scared she was, she would tell him. She had promised it to herself, and she would not take back her words. That was her way of the ninja.

Her byakugan showed her old teammate approaching from behind. Stopping, she turned to face him. "Kiba-kun."

"You haven't heard? The team sent to rescue your cousin has been sighted. They should be here any moment, and reports say that they were successful."

"Thank you, Kiba-kun. I, I must be going now." As Kiba nodded, Hinata turned and took off in the direction of the main gate. Generally, ninja were not supposed to move at high speeds throughout the village streets, but she wasn't following that rule today. Coming to a halt, she could see Tsunade looking the group over. Something was wrong. Naruto was missing, as was Chouji. Hinata's eyes darted back and forth, searching for the blond haired ninja, but he was nowhere to be found. Her cousin caught her eye. He was sitting with Tenten, his hand on her shoulder as Tsunade spoke with them. As she caught Neji's eyes, he removed his hand from Tenten, and began walking towards her.

"Neji, where is he?" Her voice shook as she spoke. Slowly, he shook his head, unwilling to speak. "No. No. Where is he, Neji-nisan? Where's Naruto?"

"I'm sorry, Hinata-san."

"No!" The others turned. They had never heard the Hyuga heiress raise her voice, and now she was screaming. "No! Where is he, Neji-nisan? No!"

Her cousin grabbed her, wrapping her in his arms as she screamed, tears falling down her face. Tsunade approached the two of them, gently placing an arm on Neji's shoulder. "We need to go to the hospital to ensure you or your teammates have no lasting injuries. Stop in when you can. And I'll expect you in my office at eleven o'clock tomorrow for the mission report. Still holding Hinata, Neji nodded. The others began to follow the Hokage to the hospital, leaving the two relatives alone.

The body lay on the ground in the Stone country, unmoving. A crow fluttered to the ground, landing beside it. Slowly, it hopped towards the corpse. With a flutter of wings, it landed on the body, and lowering its head, pecked at the flesh of the neck.

In a flash, a clawed hand grabbed the unfortunate animal, tearing into its flesh. With a gasp, Naruto rolled over, sitting up, and clutching at his throat.

He moved slowly, careful to avoid detection. He had stolen a cloak and a mask in the night from the first village he had come across. No sense alarming those whose path he crossed. He was near Konoha, near home. All he needed to do was cross the walls undetected, and make his way to the Hokage's office. If he could make it there, O-baa-chan would know what to do. As he came closer he could make out music playing, and what sounded like fireworks in the sky. He paused, unsure. He couldn't recall anything like this happening before. As he approached the road, he spotted a man leading an ox, which was harnessed to a cart. Dropping down in front of the merchant, he bowed.

"Excuse me sir, but can you tell me what is going on in the village?"

The merchant looked him over and nodded. "You haven't heard about the festival going on? The whole village is celebrating. Something about a demon dying I think. Whatever it was, I sold my wares in one day." His eyes shone as he spoke. "I'm heading back to the Grass country to visit my family."

"The whole village? Everyone?" The masked ninja's voice shook as he spoke.

The merchant shrugged as he answered. "Well, it sure seemed like it. Are you heading into the village?"

"Do you need an escort to the Grass country?"

"You aren't going to Konoha?"

Naruto looked down the path towards the village. The folds of his cloak moved, as he raised his hands to look at them, although he did not remove them from beneath the cloak. In his mind he remembered everything. Every curse or threat muttered at him as he walked down the street. He felt the sting of blood dripping into his eyes, his forehead cut open from a rock thrown at him. He closed his eyes, trying to think of the good times. Iruka buying him ramen. Tsunade giving him his necklace. But for every happy moment he could think of, there were ten more of villagers spitting on him, or pulling their children away. People calling him a demon. A demon. What were they going to think of him now? What would his friends say when they saw him. He would be alone, like Gaara had been.

"Hey kid?" The merchant's voice cut into his thoughts, jerking him out of his deliberation. "I said, aren't you heading to the village?"

"… No."

Well, that concludes the first chapter. If there was anyone out there waiting for a new story from me, sorry it took so long. Anyways, please review, as it gives me a reason to write, and I will try to update on a regular basis.

Delais.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) _Constructive_ criticism is welcomed, as are compliments

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

Tsunade sighed as she looked out over the crowd. Nearly the whole village had turned out for Chouji's funeral. A ninja village may grow accustomed to a ninja dying in the line of duty, but it was still always difficult to see one go so young. It was even harder for her, knowing that Naruto was not receiving the same treatment. The elder council of the village had seen to that.

Naruto, they had argued, was still surely alive somewhere. It was known that the Kyuubi gave him strong regenerative abilities. The council had argued that Naruto was more than likely recovering from his injuries, and that declaring him dead would be an insult to the brave ninja. Better to simply list him as missing in action until he returned. Tsunade knew better; she had helped to design the second batch of seals that had been placed on him, and she was sure that they were fatal once activated. Primary Seal Unbinding jutsu was what Shikamaru had said Naruto had called it. Couple that with the sudden burst of incredible killing intent that all of the retreating ninja had mentioned, and there was no doubt in Tsunade's mind. Naruto had allowed Kyuubi to possess his body, sacrificing himself to tear the enemies apart. She had explained it to the council, but they had been adamant in their decision. She knew what they were doing. Not a single one of them believed that Naruto was actually alive; but by declaring he was, they prevented an official funeral and day of mourning for him. And that kept his name off of the Memorial Stone.

She still could still do it, of course. She was the Hokage, after all. It would have been easy to declare that the funeral would be held for Naruto as well. The council had very little in the way of power, after all. Generally, all they did was choose a Hokage; and even then, only in situations like when the Third died, where there was no clear successor left behind. Still, they were supposed to speak for the ordinary villagers. If she just brushed them aside, it would create a lot of hostile feelings. Also, she knew what the effect of declaring it a day of mourning for Naruto as well, would be.

The majority of the adults would protest, complaining that they had no love for the 'vile monster' or 'demon' or whatever terms they would choose to use. Naruto's friends, as well as most of the ninja sensei would be angered by the slight, although the adults would understand why it occurred. The teenagers would not however, and she did not want to see what they would do in the face of such hostility from the villagers. After news had spread of Naruto and Chouji's death, almost everyone had burst into celebration. Tsunade had not called for a festival, obviously, but when a few thousand people decide to start celebrating, it's rather difficult to get them to stop. She had received quite a few reports, however, of villagers injured during the festivities. Not because of accidents occurring during their revelry, but rather because they had been attacked by young ninja from the village. Naruto had proven willing to give his life to protect his friends and his home, as he had often declared that he would be. He would be saddened to learn that his death created a civil war within the Leaf. The funeral would be held for Chouji, and Chouji alone. Tsunade would deliver the eulogy, and she would make sure not to make any mention of the chuunin she had come to view as a brother. If only she could dodge the feeling that she was a traitor to what she held dear.

Neji trudged down the street alongside Hinata, his hands thrust into his pockets, while Hinata stared down at the street. They were returning home from the funeral, deeply saddened by the whole process. It was difficult to say what was worse: looking up and seeing the casket of Chouji; with a photo of him smiling out towards everyone, or looking up and not seeing the same for Naruto. Neji was confused as to why the Hokage had simply classified Naruto as missing and not as dead. He supposed that it was because she was so close to him. Her history was common knowledge. She had been deeply affected by the death of her brother, Nawaki, as well as that of another Konoha ninja named Dan, who, rumor had it, had been something along the lines of her lover or boyfriend. Perhaps she didn't think she could handle admitting that a third person she cared so deeply for had been killed in the line of duty. Still, he decided, it was an insult to a very brave shinobi to not properly honour his death.

"Ne- Neji… Neji-nisan?" Hinata's shaking voice drew Neji's attention away from his reverie. Her voice seemed to sound- not happy, he thought, but hopeful. "Neji-nisan, Hokage-sama never mentioned Naruto-kun's name once at the funeral, and she listed him as MIA, rather than dead. Do you maybe think that he is alright?"

Neji tried to think of some response to the question. It was because of Naruto that he had reconciled with his cousin. He no longer wished to see her suffer, and a lie could come so easily. But still, he didn't want to watch her spend the rest of her life clinging to threads of false hope, knowing that he was, at the very least, partially responsible. His head hung as he began to speak. He did not want to see the expression on Hinata's face as he told her what he was going to say. "Hinata-san, I am truly sorry to say this. I know what your feelings towards Naruto were, and I cared for him as well. When I fought him in our first chuunin exam, he showed me that our fates are not predetermined, that we can overcome what fate has planned for us." Neji smiled for the briefest moment as he remembered Naruto charging towards him. "It was impossible for him to stand back up, but he did, and ran at me. He told me that if he was fated to lose, there was no need for me to defend myself. He said he felt sorry for me, and that when he became Hokage, he would change the village laws so that the branch house were no longer slaves to the main house. I would like nothing more, Hinata-san, than to believe that Naruto will be coming back. That we will wake up tomorrow to hear him yelling about how we should all be buying him ramen since we are so happy he is home.

"But it is not going to happen, Hinata-san. He told us all to run, that nothing would be safe near him. He said that the jutsu he was planning on using would consume himself and all near him. And so we ran, or in my team's case, were carried away. After maybe five minutes, there was a chakra spike so intense we could feel it without even trying. The waves of killer intent that washed over us were almost enough to make us sick. And then, it just stopped. It disappeared to nothing as quickly as it had first arrived. I'm sorry, Hinata-san, I'm not sure why the Hokage didn't include Naruto in the funeral, but he's gone."

Looking up, he met his cousin's gaze. Her face was streaked with tears. If he had been able to, he would have taken back his words; but such things were impossible.

"I see." Hinata spoke without her usual stutter, but her voice was even quieter than normal. "Thank you for your honesty, Neji-nisan."

"It's always a shame to see one of them die so young, you know?"

The attention of both cousins was drawn to the speaker. Two men were walking past, talking with one another.

"Oh I know what you mean. I feel terrible for the Akamichi. At least something good came out of it this time, though. I can't tell you how much happier I feel now that that monster isn't a threat any longer."

"True. You know, I always expected a little more of an exit than that. It's hard to believe that the demon would just die on a mission one day."

The two villagers were completely oblivious to the effect that their conversation was having on the two young ninja they had just passed. After all, well were not speaking quietly, it was a private conversation. What business did others have listening?

Hinata's tears fell faster than they had while she had been listening to Neji. She shook as she stared at the backs of the two villagers. She did not understand why so many people hated Naruto-kun. But she resolved that, no matter what happened, she never would.

Neji, meanwhile, was nowhere near as contemplative as his cousin. Naruto had changed his life; he had given him hope. And then he had laid his life down to save Neji. There was no way he would allow the teen's memory to be slandered by two assholes who didn't understand the first thing about honour or heroism.

"Hey, you trash! What gives you the right to insult Naruto like that?"

The two villagers turned at Neji's voice. Neji had timed it perfectly; the kunai sunk into the left shoulder of the one villager, knocking him off his feet. Before the other could react, Neji was in the air right in front of him. His fist connected with the man's jaw, and Neji smiled as he felt the bones shatter beneath the blow. He may not be one to use ordinary taijutsu very often, but sparring with Lee still meant he understood the proper technique quite well. The second man hit the ground unconscious. Neji cracked his knuckles and bent down in front of the first villager he had dropped. He gently removed the man's hand from the kunai that was sunk into his shoulder, speaking softly. He almost sounded like a parent comforting a small child.

"I know it hurts, but you need to leave it in until you get to the hospital. You don't want to die from blood loss after you pull it out." Standing, Neji began to make his way back to his cousin, who was staring open-mouthed at the spectacle in front of her. "Oh, and one last thing." Neji paused, and turned his head to look over his shoulder at the villager. The veins in his eyes exploded as he activated his byakugan, and his voice was now hard as steel. "You don't want to let me hear you say such things again."

A continent away, a boy was shivering as he crouched beneath the trees. This wasn't what life was supposed to be like. Barely three months ago, he had been the up and coming genin of Clan Hisoka. And now, here he was, a fourteen year old orphan, hiding in the dark and cold. It wasn't right that he was still alive. It was his fault that his village was attacked.

A twig snapping alerted him to the presence of someone else. "Be more careful. He's got to be around here somewhere." The voice hissed quietly, barely audible from where he hid. There were two of them. At least two of them. Should he run, should he stay hidden? His hand slipped into his pocket. He felt the cool metal of his forehead protector. Sliding his finger over it, he could feel the ridge from the circle, the symbol of his village, engraved into it. Hisashi pulled the forehead protector out of his pocket. His eyes, which moments before had been watering, were now hard. He wiped the residual moisture out of them, and tied his forehead protector on. He was not running. He was a ninja from the Village of Hidden Sun. It was more than likely that he was the last ninja from the Hidden Sun. And these were two of the bastards that had destroyed his village. His green eyes flashed, the pupils turning yellow. With a howl, Hisoka Hisashi dashed out of his hiding place, towards the two ninja before him.

Akamaru whined as Kiba walked up the path. Kiba turned around to look at the dog. "Come on now, you've been here before. We both know there's nothing to be afraid of." Akamaru whined in response, before letting out several high pitched yelps. "Stay here if you want, then. We both know the Arabume are friends." Akamaru responded with several more barks. "Of course there's a lot of strange smells. They're all full of bugs. Stay if you want, but I need to speak to Shino." Turning, Kiba continued up the path, with Akamaru reluctantly following.

Reaching the door, Kiba raised his hand to knock, only to have it flung open before his hand even landed. "Kiba-kun!" A girl latched herself onto the Inazuka, arms squeezed tightly around him.

Kiba gently untangled his friend's younger sibling from his body. "Hello, Kira-chan. Is your brother in today?" She nodded, and he continued. "I suppose I can find him in the garden out back, then?"

"Yep. He's always training his bugs in the garden. That's what he calls it, anyways. He just gets them to eat all the weeds, and claims that he's done his chores for the week. I'm never able to do anything like that. The bugs all like him more than me, because he has more chakra that he can feed them. They all do what he wants when we tell them to do different things. But never mind that. How come you never come visit me, instead of my brother?"

"Well, you know. I've got missions and stuff." Kiba was well aware of the fact that Kira had something of a crush on him. She was a nice girl, but Kiba couldn't get rid of the image of all those bugs crawling beneath her skin. To say nothing of the fact that she was a little young, or that he was more than a little afraid of what her brother would do to him. He was saved by Akamaru letting out an excited bark.

"Oooh, look who it is! Hey there, boy, I haven't seen you for some time." Kneeling down, Kira began to scratch the top of the dog's head, playing with his ears. "I've been trying to talk mom and dad into letting me get an Akita, but they won't have anything to do with it. I guess that I'll just have to make do with spoiling you whenever Kiba chooses to show up. Come on, boy; let's get you something to eat." At that, Akamaru happily followed the younger of the Arabume siblings into the house, leaving Kiba to make his way around to the back yard garden on his own. He shook his head as he went. That girl was the exact opposite of Shino. It didn't make sense that they were siblings.

"Oi, Shino." The Arabume heir turned at the sound of the voice, nodding his head in greeting. "We need to have a talk, man." In response, Shino merely nodded his head to an empty patch of ground beside Kiba. Few would understand what it meant, but Kiba had spent years teaming up with him. He understood Shino's actions, and the present question perfectly. "Where else man, mooching food off of your sister. I swear, every time we come here, he whines and moans until she starts feeding him, and then he's happy as a clam. Bloody mooch." Shino crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow, prompting Kiba to continue. "Right, the reason I'm here."

He paused a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. "I'm getting really worried about Hinata. I mean, it's been almost a year since Naruto died, and I think she's still really upset. I mean, she's training every day. She says she needs to become strong like he was, and she's still using that forehead protector from Chouji's funeral. You know, the one on black cloth instead of blue."

"And?" It was the first thing Shino had said in the last few conversations that the two ninja had had. An observer unfamiliar in the mannerisms of the boy would think he didn't care about the person they were discussing. It was quite the opposite, rather. The fact that Shino had spoken the single word spoke volumes as to the great importance he placed on this conversation.

"And I'm worried man. I mean, we were all friends with him right? I know she gets upset pretty easily, but it's a little much isn't it? Like, really, it's not like they were even going out together, right?"

Shino pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose, despite the fact that they were still covering his eyes. He sighed before speaking. "Kiba, you're not too observant, are you?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she was in love with Naruto. It wasn't all that hard to see. She looked up to him in every way. Kurenai-sensei thinks she looked at Naruto struggling with the hatred of the villagers, and wished she could find the strength to do the same with her family. I'm surprised you couldn't smell it on her."

"Well, I thought that-" He was interrupted when Shino raised his hand. Shaking his head, the bug user continued. "I don't think there's anything to worry about, Kiba. I hope she gets over his death one day, but until she does, I don't think there's a lot we can do to make her. Rest assured, I'm keeping a close eye on her. The same goes for you, for that matter."

"Say what?"

Shino merely nodded towards the ground. "Look at your shoe." Kiba glanced down and watched as a few bugs flew off and landed on Shino, crawling up his arms to disappear from view.

"I keep watch over my friends. As long as either of you, or Kurenai-sensei, are near me, or any other member of my clan, help is always nearby. Don't worry about Hinata, Kiba. She'll be fine."

Hisashi stumbled down the trail, attempting to get away. Tears streaked his eyes as he ran. He had been alone for over a year now. He had managed to beg work on a trading vessel, and had ended up sailing across the ocean to some continent he had never even heard of. It had thrown his pursuers off his trail, but now he was even more alone than before. He had no idea how to speak the language that was being used on this continent. He had been unable to get any food for three days now, and he was once more being pursued.

Idiot, he admonished himself. He had made such a stupid mistake, accidentally pulling his forehead protector out of his pocket inside of a village. The ninja pursuing him probably thought he was a spy or something. He cringed as one of his pursuers landed in front of him. He got to his feet and took in his surroundings. One ninja stood in front of him, directly in front of a hill. There was tall grass on all sides, about waist deep. Nine more ninja stood in the grass or the path, forming a large loose circle around him. Their forehead protectors had three horizontal lines, one atop the other for their symbol; not that it mattered in any way. It's not like he was going to recognize any symbols here, he reflected.

The lead ninja spoke to him, his tone slightly threatening. Hisashi struggled to stay focused; he had to figure a way out. He fought to keep the fear out of his voice as he responded. "I don't understand what you're saying. Do you speak the language of the continent to the west of here?" The only response he got was a hand signal from the leader. The circle slowly began to close. Hisashi pulled out a kunai.

"Oi!" The shout drew everyone's attention to the hill just beyond the circle of ninja. Standing atop it was a figure covered by a cloak. He wore a plain white mask, which oddly had a small hole over the mouth. Hisashi took him in. The masked person was slightly taller than himself, about the same height as his opponents. His voice identified him as male, but it was hard to place his age. On the one hand, it sounded very youthful… but there was something else to it as well, making Hisashi instantly decide there was something strange about him. While he did not wear a forehead protector anywhere visible, his stance seemed to scream ninja. The masked figure spoke again, his tone clearly threatening, and Hisashi's opponents all seemed to flinch, several even taking a step back.

The man who had spoken to Hisashi turned and shouted at the squad, before he and seven others ran at the masked ninja. Well, there's two things decided, thought Hisashi. Eight on him, he's definitely not a normal ninja, and it looks like he's got a reputation. And secondly, only two left to fight me. His eyes went from green to yellow as the thoughts raced through his brain. They don't know who I am.

Somewhere in the back of Naruto's mind, he was reflecting that this was exactly the sort of thing for whibh Jiraiya or Kakashi would be tearing a strip off of him. His first encounter with what he suspected were Hidden Wind ninja, and he was in a fight with them. Exactly the kind of thing that he should avoid. But this was all in the back of his mind. Far in the back.

It was all coming up to the surface now. It was there every time that he fought. The anger, the hatred, the bloodlust. Behind his mask, his eyes narrowed into slits. His instinct kicked in. It was time to hurt people, torture them, kill them. Make them pay for daring to be alive and daring to oppose him. He began forming seals at a rapid pace. "Katon: Ryuuko no Jutsu!"

The Wind ninja scattered as the jutsu streaked at them, a huge gout of flame exhaled from Naruto's mouth that caught two of the ninja who had moved too slowly in their attempt to dodge. As the flame died away, the grass was scorched down to the dirt, which had become hard and cracked. All that remained of the two ninja were piles of charred bones.

A ninja appeared beside Naruto, kunai streaking towards him. The masked ninja didn't even try to block, allowing the knife to sink deeply into his right arm. As it did so, he twisted, bringing his left arm up. His claws sunk into the face of the Wind ninja, and Naruto viciously tore them across the man's face with a howl. The majority of the unfortunate ninja's face simply disappeared, torn off by the rending attack. Eyeing two ninja in front of him, Naruto began to charge, a feral grin appearing on his face as his opponents leapt away.

He paused in his attack, and whirled around to face the ninja whose face he had clawed off. A kunoichi was bent over the man, hands glowing as she attempted to stabilize her comrade. Naruto's hand came up, tearing his mask away. Arms back, he sprinted towards the medical ninja. She saw him coming, but merely closed her eyes as she continued to treat Naruto's earlier victim. Her hands glowed brighter, but nothing else changed.

Naruto slammed into her, fangs closing down on her throat. The two of them began rolling down the hill, one over the other, coming to a stop at the bottom. Naruto snapped his head back, tearing the medical-nin's throat out, and stood. Blood spilled everywhere, staining the ground around her. She stared upwards, eyes wide open. Her left hand trembled as it made its way towards her throat, still glowing slightly. Naruto grabbed the wrist with one hand, and her hand in the other. With a quick twist, he snapped the wrist, her hand facing completely backwards. He leapt away, landing back atop the hill beside his discarded mask. Bending down, he scooped it up and replaced it over his face.

Hisashi looked on at the mysterious ninja who was now down to four opponents. He had dispatched the two left to him without too much trouble, but was unsure of what to do now. He could help the masked ninja, but he had seen his first three kills, and it didn't look like he needed it. Still, he didn't want this man to mistake him for an opponent. Hesitantly, he took a few steps towards the last four of his pursuers.

The leader of the group, still alive, barked something out, and two of his remaining comrades turned and ran. The last took a step towards him. The leader shouted one word at the top of his voice, and Hisashi, despite not knowing the language, could clearly understand the meaning. The remaining ninja hesitated for another several seconds, before she, too, turned and ran. The leader glared the masked shinobi, the two of them staring each other down.

The Wind ninja was the first to act. Quickly forming the needed seals, he threw his hands forward, thumbs and index fingers touching to form a diamond. A beam of black energy erupted from his chest, rocketing forwards faster than Hisashi could make out, to make impact with his masked opponent. The mystery ninja was sent backwards at an incredible speed, disappearing from view. The Wind leader coughed once, before collapsing to the ground.

Slowly, Hisashi willed himself to approach the fallen man. He wanted to get away as quickly as possible, but he was still incredibly hungry. Hopefully, he could scrounge supplies off of the corpses. Reaching the top of the hill, he had a close-up view of the ninja whose face Naruto had torn away, as well as the corpse of the medic lying at the rise's opposite base. Fighting back bile, he bent down to inspect the two corpses near him. It took him just under a minute to search the first ninja. There were plenty of weapons, but no food. As he switched his inspection to the second ninja, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. His head turned, and his eyes went wide. He was sure that the leader's final attack should have killed the masked ninja, or at least seriously wounded him, but he was back, and charging him at an incredible speed.

A bolt of lightning shot out of the boy's body, and Naruto leapt, soaring far into the air. He angled his body to hit the lone survivor as he descended. His aim was perfect, landing square on the teenager, pinning his shoulders to the ground with his knees. A clawed hand whipped out from beneath the cloak, reaching back, ready to tear Hisashi's throat out. He stared into his victims yellow eyes, which were wide with fright.

Hisashi stared at the monster pinning his back to the ground. He was sure he would die, but every time the claw above him began to move, the body of the man, or whatever he was fighting shook, and the claw moved back. Taking a deep breath, Hisashi began to concentrate, feeling his strength building up.

Naruto was beginning to feel sick. It was a miniscule feeling, but it was still annoying. Was this kid using some sort of genjutsu or something, or was it just the effort of holding back the demonic instincts within him? Either way, he didn't like it.

Hisashi was about to make his move, he had gathered all the strength he could. He couldn't believe it. As he began to form his thoughts, the clawed hand above him clenched into a fist and descended. Hisashi's world exploded as he collapsed into blackness.

Hisashi awoke to find it was night, and he was lying on the ground. That thing hadn't killed him? How long had he been unconscious? A voice said something behind him, and he whirled around. His eyes went wide with fear. The masked monster was sitting next to a campfire. It spoke again, curiosity in its voice. Shaking, Hisashi sat up. "I- I'm sorry, si- sir. I don't know your language. I'm… I'm from the continent to the west."

The masked monster cocked his head to the side, and after a moment, shrugged. Hisashi flinched when one of its clawed hands reached into its pack, but he relaxed a moment later. It was holding what looked like dried meat. Slowly, the monster spoke a single word. "Food." He tossed it to Hisashi, who caught it. The monster spoke again. "Eat."

Hisashi bowed and spoke several words in his own language. The monster shrugged. Taking a single bite out of the jerky, Hisashi smiled and said the words again. The monster clapped his hands together and spoke excitedly. "Thank you!"

Hisashi bowed for the third time before speaking the words slowly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

After several more bites, Hisashi pointed to himself. "Hisoka Hisashi." There was a heavy pause which seemed to stretch on forever. After ten seconds, Hisashi decided he had somehow done something wrong. Finally, the monster pointed to himself. "Uzumaki Naruto."

Hinata and Neji walked down the corridor in the Hyuga family's main house. The younger Hyuga shook slightly as she walked. Her elder cousin did his best to reassure her. "Hinata-sama, you will do fine."

The younger cousin nodded, trying to allow her guardian's words to bring her a measure of comfort. Her worries still existed however. "But the last time we fought, she defeated me, Neji-nisan."

"The last time you fought," Neji countered, "was years ago, and you had not spent well over a year before the battle training with me. I have the utmost confidence in you, Hinata-sama."

Hinata smiled. This time, Neji's words had managed to reassure her. "I would still rather not fight, Neji-nisan. I do not want to see Hanabi-chan suffer because of me."

"Hinata-sama, you must do this if you wish to realize your goals. You gave me your word that when you become the leader of the clan, you will not allow the use of the cursed seal to continue, did you not?" Waiting until she nodded, Neji then continued. "If you allow Hanabi to defeat you, you will never be able to keep your word." They paused outside the entrance to the sparring chamber. "And what is your way of the ninja?"

Hinata's face grew serious once more as she answered. "To keep my promises. To never take back my words."

"Naruto would be proud of you." Watching his cousin's face once more spread into a smile, Neji allowed himself a rare grin of his own. "Now come on." Sliding the door open, he stepped into the chamber, motioning for her to follow. "Let's show your father what you're made of."

Hinata stepped into the chamber, and sat on one of the benches near the door. At the other side of the room sat Hanabi, along with their father and various other high-ranking members of the clan. Hinata was surprised when, rather than cross the room to sit with the others, he took his seat beside her. Hiashi's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but said nothing at Neji's unspoken declaration of allegiance.

Standing, Hiashi strode to the center of the room. Looking first at Hanabi and the others, and then to Hinata and Neji, he spoke. "My fellow clan members, we are here today to witness my younger daughter Hyuga Hanabi challenge her elder sister Hinata, for the title of clan heir. The match shall continue until such time as one declares they no longer wish to fight, or until I rule that the match has ended. Shall we begin?"

Before he could continue, Neji rose to his feet and stepped forwards, his voice apprehensive. "Hiashi-sama, I am concerned about this match taking place."

His uncle's eyes were cold as he glared at him. "Are you questioning my judgment, Neji?"

Neji bowed before continuing. "No sir, I am merely expressing concern that we are setting a precedent with this match. Traditionally, the eldest has always led. If Hanabi wins this match, it could be interpreted that at a later point, Hinata, or any future child you may have, could challenge her for leadership."

Hiashi nodded to the branch member. "I thank you for your concern Neji, but rest assured, this shall only happen once. No future matches to determine my successor shall be allowed."

"Thank you, Hiashi-sama." Neji waited for his uncle to nod before he turned to take his seat. As he sat he muttered under his breath. "There, now you only need to win once."

"Now then," Hiashi motioned for Hanabi and Hinata to stand. "If there are no further objections, let us proceed." He moved back to his seat before giving the command.

"Begin."

Hanabi activated her byakugan as soon as her father spoke, taking only a second to bring forth her family's bloodline limit. Hinata, however, drew a kunai, and threw it at her sister. Hanabi easily dodged it, moving out of the way of a barrage of shuriken as well. She smirked as she dodged; she was easily avoiding her sister's attacks.

Hinata wore a smirk of her own, however. Darting in, she activated her own byakugan. It was easy for a Hyuga to activate their bloodline limit while moving, but Hanabi, like most Hyuga, had viewed it as a first step. You had to wait for the match to start, but once it did, it was the first thing to do, before moving on to the actual combat. Hinata, however, had learned from training with Neji. She had not expected her projectiles to hit, but they had done their job. Hanabi had been forced back, and now Hinata attacked holding the initiative.

She swung her palm forwards, only to have Hanabi turn it away. She continued her attack, her sister blocking her blows but being unable to take the offensive. Finally, Hanabi managed to slide away from Hinata's attacks, jumping back in an effort to gain a moment of time. Pulling out two kunai, she threw them at Hinata before following them in, planning on gaining the initiative in the match in much the same way Hinata had.

Her first three strike were turned aside by her elder sister. Her fourth, however, cut through Hinata's defenses, heading towards her chest. Hinata smiled as she took a step backwards, and Hanabi's strike fell short. Neji had prepared her well for this fight, often using their matches against each other as references. When she fought Neji, he had the advantage of a longer reach, and often exploited that to avoid Hinata's attacks. Now, she was doing the same thing to Hanabi. Having evaded her sister's attack, she sent in one of her own. Rather than dodge however, Hanabi used an unexpected maneuver. Stepping forwards, she accepted the hit, wincing as she felt one of the tenketsu in her chest close, to deliver a blow to Hinata's stomach, sealing one of the points on her sister's body. Both combatants leapt away, taking a moment to adapt to the situation.

Neji chose that moment to interrupt the fight. "Hinata-sama, I suggest you remove your jacket." Hinata nodded. She still preferred to wear it. Her self esteem had improved over the years, but not drastically so. Still, Neji was right. This fight was serious, and while she had improved greatly, she did not think it was wise to handicap herself. Removing her coat, she tossed it away.

With the exceptions of Hinata and Neji, everyone's eyes widened when her jacket struck the far wall. The crash that the jacket made suggested that, while it was nowhere near the level of Lee's ankle devices, Hinata's coat had been somewhat heavily weighted.

With a much greater speed, Hinata bolted towards her startled sister. The younger girl was too surprised to do anything but defend herself. She had beaten Hinata all those years ago, and since then had been told that she was the stronger, while her older sister was a disgrace to the clan for being too weak. The realization that her older sister was not only equal with her, but in fact better, was disrupting the younger girl's calm. Hanabi felt her defense crumbling, and jumped away. As she did so, however, Hinata scored several more hits on the girl.

Hinata stood in the center of the room, waiting for her sister to re-enter combat. Rather than do so, Hanabi threw several shuriken and kunai, hoping to force Hinata to give up ground. Hinata, however, drew a kunai of her own, deflecting Hanabi's attack, and continuing to wait. Angrily, Hanabi charged in, frustration getting the better of her common sense. As she approached, Hinata shifted her feet, waiting for the right moment. She wanted Hanabi to be right… there!

"Kaiten!"

Hanabi flew backwards, to the shock of the entire room. Neji and Hinata of course, being the only exceptions. He had trained quite hard with Hinata, and as far as he knew, this was the first time she had called on the heavenly spin outside of training since he taught her four months ago. When Hiashi had announced the match, they had agreed it would be Hinata's trump card.

Hinata flew towards her sister, who was just picking herself up off the ground. This was it; it was time to finish the match. "Sixty-four points of tenketsu!" One strike hit home after the next, sealing the younger girl's chakra system completely. The attack concluded, Hinata caught Hanabi as she fell to the ground, before stepping back to stare at her father. He waited expectantly, looking at Hanabi who was struggling to stand. Finally she gave up, falling to the ground on her hands and knees.

"The match is concluded." Hiashi's voice still carried its cold tone. But it contained something else as well. Disappointment or sadness, it was hard to tell. "Hyuga Hinata remains my heir. Hanabi shall be relegated to the branch family."

Quickly, Hinata dropped to one knee, bowing forwards with one fist held to the ground. "Father, I beg you not to do this. Hanabi should not be sent out of the main family." The younger sister raised her head to look at Hinata, incredulity written across her face. Hinata rushed onwards, not wanting to give Hiashi time to respond. "I am already a chuunin of the village. My rising skill suggests I may be promoted of jounin. And then there is the constant threat of a war with the Sound village. Both of these factors will create an increase in the chance of my death. If such a thing were to happen, we will still need Hanabi to lead, and it would not do for her to have a cursed seal on her forehead." Hinata finished her speech, slightly out of breath. She continued to hold her head down, waiting for her father's response.

Hiashi stared at his two daughters on the ground, his face clearly showing deliberation. Finally, he spoke. "Hinata, you have clearly demonstrated greater capabilities than we have expected from you today. Both in terms of skill, and intelligence. You are to be thanked and congratulated. Today, you have demonstrated that perhaps you do have the ability to one day lead the clan. Hanabi, due to your sister's arguments, you shall remain within the main house. You should be grateful to her. You are both dismissed."

At that, Hinata rose, helping Hanabi to her feet. She and Neji led the younger girl out of the room. Neji slid the door closed behind them, smiling at Hinata once again. "Well, looks like you've started your goal a little early, Hinata-sama."

The twenty mourners stood in front of the monument. Konohamaru had spent months scouring the forest for a rock large enough for what he had had in mind. He had recruited Lee, and the rest of the Konohamaru Corps, to haul it up near the Memorial Stone. Kiba and Akamaru's gatsuuga, along with Shino's destruction bugs, had burrowed a path into the trees, carving out room to place the stone. Tenten had been called upon to chisel the names into it using her kunai. She had destroyed quite a few of them, along with blistering her hands badly enough that Tsunade had used a small healing jutsu on them.

Tsunade was the first to break the silence. "It was good of you to do this, Konohamaru, I may not have been able to have a funeral for him, but I'll make sure nothing happens to this monument." Stepping forwards, she knelt down to place a flower in front of the stone. One by one, the others stepped up to leave tokens in front of the stone. Flowers, the goggles Naruto had always worn until the day Iruka had given him his forehead protector. A couple of cups of instant ramen. Everyone stared at the monument, before slowly walking away, leaving only the stone, with it's message carved into it.

_Uzumaki Naruto: Missing for two years on this day. Dead or alive, your friends have not forgotten you._

_Iruka, Kakashi, Sakura, Asuma, Shikamaru, Ino, Kurenai, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Gia, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, Jiraiya, Shizune, Tsunade_

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter of the story, it was greatly appreciated. Silver Demon Fox, in regards to your question, Naruto put those seals on his body himself, for the purpose of deactivating the Fourth's seal.

Anyways, I hope I have found a way to show scene shifts. I've tried a few, but they never appear when I post the story. Hopefully the three stars (or whatever the shift-8 things are) will show up.

Please review, I'll try to keep updating at the same pace: Delais


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) _Constructive_ criticism is welcomed, as are compliments.

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

O-O-O

Sakura and Lee sat in the restaurant talking, both glad to be with one another. It was rare that they found any time together. Sakura was a medic-nin of great renown, and was rumored to possess strength to rival that of her private sensei, Tsunade. And Lee, of course, was one of the village's most powerful jounin. Their combined schedules left the lovers little time for one another.

The ANBU had requested, several times, for Lee to join their ranks, but he had turned them down every time. He was one of the first to be asked to help on a mission when they were stretched too thin, and he was proud to serve beside them, but he would not actually join. Sakura thought back to when she had asked him about this a few months back. She had been curious as to why he would not join, when Neji, still his rival, was a member. The answer Lee had given her had not been what she had expected.

Should he join ANBU, he had told her, he would not have any time to see her at all. It was no secret that Konoha's elite division was undermanned. As such, their mission load was quite high, and they were not allowed to decline a mission for any reason whatsoever. And furthermore, he had said, not only would he have no time to spend with her, he would be out of the village far too often to protect her. The first part of his answer had touched her, but the second had left her rather annoyed. She had responded somewhat testily that she was able to look after herself nowadays. Lee had merely shrugged and told her that, regardless, he had promised to protect her with his life, and he intended to honour that promise. Besides which, he had asked, who would have suspected Naruto would ever find an opponent he couldn't walk away from. That had ended that conversation, with both the ninja sadly thinking of their fallen comrade. Sakura shook her head, focusing on the present. Now was not the time for such memories, not when Lee was finally here, and they were spending time together.

"So, why did your team stop in the Sand village?" Lee had just returned home in the early morning from a mission that had taken close to two weeks. He, alongside Kiba and Shikamaru, had delivered an ultimatum to the Hidden Village of Stone. There had been reports that the Stone had been entertaining emissaries from the Hidden Village of Sound, and the Hokage had felt it would be prudent to remind the Stone village that while the Leaf did not consider the Sound village an active enemy at the moment, they were certainly not considered friends. The Sound was still led by Orochimaru, a man who had betrayed the Leaf, murdered their Third Hokage, as well as the Kazekage of their allies, the Sand village, and commenced a war with the Leaf. And as if that were not enough, he had convinced several ninja to defect, Sasuke being the most powerful of them. Tsunade had pointed out in her letter that any treaty with the Sound village would be viewed with some alarm in Konoha.

"Well, we delivered the message without any incident." Lee paused to think of his response. He had spent most of the day waiting to give his mission summary, and did not feel a desire to spend another hour and a half going back into the minutiae of what had happened. "The problem came on the way back. Akamaru picked up a scent that was only a few hours old, and he and Kiba recognized it as Zharen's. You remember, he was part of those missing-nin from last month?" Sakura nodded. Five weeks ago, two genin teams, along with their sensei, had stumbled into three missing-nin who had begun acting as a team. One genin had survived, along with his sensei, who had saved him. ANBU had tracked the three criminals, and had dispatched two of them. Zharen however had escaped. Lee continued his brief retelling of events. "We decided to follow him. We were near Sand country's border, and it looked like he was heading into it. Even if we didn't go after him, we would have had to pass on a warning to them. So since the trail was warm, we just did it ourselves."

"Did you catch him?"

Lee looked away from Sakura before answering. "Yeah, we caught up to him after a day. We took care of him." He shifted his gaze downward to examine his food. All ninja saw themselves in different ways. Some were killers, others tools. Sasuke had called himself an avenger. Lee considered himself a protector. While he had no problems killing an opponent, it was not a part of his duties he took pride in. Deciding that he needed to finish his story, and not just stare at his meal, he went on. "Akamaru got pretty banged up in the fight, and none of us have any healing techniques, so since we were closer to the Sand village, we just headed to it and spent a couple days resting."

"Did you see the trio?" Sakura's was referring to the team of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. Since the three siblings from the Sand village had been dispatched to bail out the Leaf genin when they had attempted to stop Sasuke's flight, they had become a common sight in Konoha. It seemed that almost every time the Sand dispatched ninja to aid its ally, the three siblings were the ones being sent.

Lee decided it was time to look back up, his smile having managed to once more make its way onto his face. "Of course. Gaara and Temari both came to find me. Kankuro didn't visit with any of us." Noticing his girlfriend's change in disposition at the mention of Gaara, he did his best to reassure her. "He's a lot different than he used to be, Sakura-chan. I think it was Naruto's death that changed him."

Sakura nodded at this. Kankuro and Temari had both said that Gaara had begun to change shortly after Naruto had prevented him from killing both her and Sasuke. The memorial stone that had been set up for Naruto now bore the names of the Sand ninja, all three having been carved into it in seconds by Gaara and his sand. "So why did they want to see you?"

"Well, Gaara wanted me to have a quick spar with him, so we did that, and-"

"What?" Lee winced at the volume of Sakura's voice. Perhaps Shikamaru had been correct when he had advised him not to mention that detail to her. "Are you insane? Who cares if he's changed! If he had lost control for one second he could have killed you!"

"He's not like that anymore Sakura-chan, honest." Lee spoke quickly, hoping to calm Sakura down before she became any more upset. "You should have seen. A lot of the little children aren't even afraid of him. They would smile or wave, one of them told me that Gaara taught him to walk up cliffs. And there was even a kunoichi our age, who came and watched us fight. I kind of think she's attracted to him."

That drew Sakura's attention. "Really?"

"Really. I asked him why she was there, and he just shrugged and said she was probably worried about him. He said he had mentioned to her that I was the first person to land a blow on him. Anyways, he won the fight pretty quick." Sidestepping how Gaara won the fight quickly, he expertly drew his girlfriend's attention to a new source. "But wait until I tell you about Temari."

Lee's grin became mischievous as he finished his sentence, drawing out the gossiping instinct in Sakura. She leaned in towards him, not wanting to miss a word. Lee waited for several moments, allowing her curiosity to build. Finally, when the first signs of impatience began to appear on her face, he launched into his next tale.

"She caught me when I was eating dinner on the first night. I had gone to spar with Gaara just before most people have dinner, so by the time I came back and showered, the other two had already eaten. I left to find a restaurant, and she just appeared while I was walking along the street. She asked what I was up to, and said she would eat with me."

"Why?"

"Probably because she spent the entire time asking me about Shikamaru. It looks like she's still very interested in him."

Sakura shook her head. "She should just look for someone else already. Ever since the whole breakup with Ino, all he ever says about girls are that they're 'too troublesome' or 'not worth the effort'."

It was true; since his relationship with Ino had ended, Shikamaru had become very hostile towards the notion of romantic entanglements. No one was too sure what exactly had happened. Ino had never been willing to discuss it, and getting Shikamaru to hold a conversation about anything was difficult enough that it could have been a portion of a chuunin exam. All that was clear was that the process had left the Nara clan's youngest ever jounin extremely bitter. Still, Lee suspected that perhaps the Sand kunoichi who had shown an interest in him for so long had finally come up with a good plan.

"Well, on the second day, she challenged him to a game of shougi. Shikamaru looked like he was really concentrating to win."

"He always looks like that, even when he was just playing against Asuma, and he never had any trouble with him."

"They played the one game for over an hour."

Sakura's eyes widened. "An hour? There's no way someone can last that long against him without practice."

Lee nodded, "That's what Kiba said, too." He tilted his head and arched his eyebrows. "Of course, it also helps to spend the night before asking one of his friends everything they can remember about the few matches they have had against each other."

Sakura stared at her boyfriend with a look of incredulity. "She asked you about how he liked to play?"

Lee shook his head. "Actually, it was more like an interrogation." He ended his statement with a chuckle. "It would have been annoying if she hadn't paid for dinner. I think it was a thank you for answering her questions."

"So you think her plan worked?" Sakura leaned forwards after asking the question, curiosity written across her face. When Lee answered, she sat back, blinking in surprise.

"Shikamaru told her to come play against him the next time she's in the village."

She spent close to a minute filtering through the information, deciding if this was something she needed to tell Ino. Finally, she decided it was a subject to be examined later. Making a conscious effort, she steered the conversation into a different direction. "So is Akamaru alright, then?"

"No. We had to take turns carrying him on the way back. It looks like he sprained a couple of his legs pretty badly. He'll be fine soon enough though. Kiba said it won't be more than another week, at the most. How was your time?"

Sakura shrugged; compared to Lee's tales, her stories of studying scrolls, or practicing medical jutsu were all pretty tame. Even her spars against Jiraiya or Tsunade didn't seem all that interesting. Still, she knew from past experience that, no matter how boring her story was, Lee would sit there asking questions about everything she had to say. She had asked him once, why he cared about some minor detail. What it was, she could no longer remember. He had shrugged before answering. "I like listening to your voice."

"There really isn't all that much to tell. I set a few broken bones, I trained when I had the time. I suppose I went out for coffee with Ino once, but aside from that it's been pretty uneventful."

"Were any of the bones you set from anything serious?"

"Not really." Sakura shook her head as she answered. "One was just a villager who broke an ankle; he slipped while he was helping to move a mattress up a flight of stairs. The other was a genin who fell out of a tree. He was practicing chakra control and he lost his concentration for a second. That one could have been bad if he had hit his head, but he landed on his arm. All in all it was a pretty boring week."

The meal did not last much longer. Both Sakura and Lee focused more on finishing their dinner than on further small talk. There was a brief argument when the check came. Sakura wanted to pay, saying it should be a treat for Lee, as he had returned home safely from his mission. Lee, for his part, argued that as he had just received payment for his mission, as well as a bonus for the defeat of Zharen, he should be the one paying. He won the debate after a few seconds, Sakura not minding all that much if he wanted to spend money in her.

The couple exited the restaurant, making their way hand in hand down the street. At the door to Sakura's apartment complex, she gave her boyfriend a lingering kiss before breaking away.

Lee smiled, or rather continued to smile. It seemed he was always smiling when Sakura was around. Moving quickly, he gave her one last peck on the lips before speaking. "Goodnight, Sakura-chan."

"You know, Lee-kun, I don't need to report to the hospital tomorrow until the afternoon. Do you want to come inside?"

"Ah, now this is incentive to return home safely."

He was rewarded with a cuff to the side of his head. Sakura turned to unlock the complex entrance. "Not if you continue to make me angry, it won't be." Lee thought about pointing out that if she was truly angry, her punch would have sent him at least half a block through the air, but wisely decided against it. The much safer road, he decided, was to remain silent.

Entering the apartment, Sakura flipped on the lights and gestured towards her living room couch. "Sit down for a minute." Her green eyes shone mischievously. "I'm going to go get changed." Turning, she made her way towards her bedroom.

Lee made his way towards the couch he had been directed to, but chose to go towards the window instead. It was a sliding door, leading onto a tiny patio, the curtains open. Perhaps he should close them. The apartment was on the fifth floor, but still, there were other buildings of this height. Lee paused, trying to look outside. The light from the apartment, and the darkness outside combined to make the glass a much better mirror than a window. It was almost impossible to make anything out, but he was sure he had seen something. Almost like someone had thrown something at-

His shout of surprise and alarm came - at most - half a second before the window shattered as a person came soaring through it.

Sakura was in her room, the door closed. She had put her earrings away, and had just opened her closet door when Lee cried out, alongside the sound of shattering glass.

All of her thoughts flew from her mind as instinct took over. She spun towards her dresser, a simple seal opening the top drawer. As she passed by it, she reached inside and pulled out her kunai pouch. Shoulder down, she went through the door, not caring that it would have taken only several seconds longer to open it. Her battle instincts were running now, and at the moment, they were more concerned with speed than subtlety. She appeared in the living room, kunai in hand. All in all, it had taken four seconds since Lee's cry.

Lee was near the wall opposite the window, his legendary speed and reflexes having carried him out of harms way. Glass shards littered the floor near her window, where a body laid motionless, blood pooling on the floor around it. What the hell was this, some sort of trick? Quickly running through the seals, Sakura attempted to dispel any genjutsu that she may have wandered into, but nothing changed; whatever this was, it was real. Immediately, she shifted into her 'ninja mode'. This person needed treatment now, and she intended to give it.

"Lee, cover the window, keep on guard for any attacks." As she moved towards the body, she snapped out her orders. This was a crisis situation; there was no time for politeness. Hauling the body to the side, she brought it, and herself, out of a direct line of attack. Her hands began to glow blue as she rolled the person over. His back hadn't shown any obvious wounds, so she was moving on to his front.

"Shit!"

Lee's head snapped around for a moment, concerned at his girlfriend's cry. She seemed surprised but not threatened, so he instantly returned his gaze to the shattered window, trying to anticipate where an attack might come from. A second later, he did a double take, eyes wide with surprise. "Sakura-chan, is that who I think it is?"

"Lee-kun." Sakura's voice was calm, although unnaturally quiet. It seemed like she was struggling to stay in control. You need to go and get Tsunade-sama and Shizune-sama right away. Tell them to bring an ANBU team as well."

"But-" Lee hesitated, not sure of what to do.

"Lee!" Sakura was unused to being contradicted in such situations. This was her patient, and she expected her orders to be followed. "Now!" Her command spurred him into action. Leaping out the window, he took off towards the Hokage tower, hoping to find at least one of Sakura's two sensei there.

Sakura, meanwhile, set to work on her patient. She had already been able to determine the general extent of his injuries, and she was now addressing what she could. Her hands flew over his face, attempting to repair the slashes that ran across it. Kunai, or some sort of weapon, had torn deeply into the shinobi's face. It seemed most of the wounds had clotted, and the recent trip through her window had served to reopen them. The facial lacerations concerned her, as they were so wide. She was carefully extracting glass from them, not wanting to miss anything. If she did, it would be hell to fix later. She was just moving on to the left arm when Lee returned, along with the group she had sent him to gather.

Tsunade and Shizune were both at her side in seconds, ready to assist in the treatment.

"What's your assessment?" The Hokage refused to let her surprise distract her from the task at hand

"Severe facial lacerations, which I have patched up for the moment. Two cracked ribs, and three broken ones, one of which has pierced the left lung. A compound fracture near the left shoulder, which has been dislocated. The right arm has superficial cuts and bruises, but nothing more. The right kneecap is split into three main chunks, along with several smaller ones, and the left ankle has a hairline fracture running through it, as well as the femur being snapped higher up. It's a miracle he's still alive."

Tsunade glanced at her apprentice, noticing her hands beginning to shake. Now that others were here, the shock of the situation was beginning to get to her. "Sakura, you're done here. Shizune and I will take over."

"But… Sasuke-"

"Lee, get her out of here. She's getting upset, and we can't risk moving him. Take her to my office, or your apartment, or something. Make sure she's alright."

Nodding, Lee gently pulled Sakura away, leading her back out into the hall. Half dragging, half carrying her, he led her across town to his own apartment; sitting her down on his couch. He sat beside her, arm on her shoulder, trying to see if she was alright.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Lee. Lee-kun, who did that to him? Why did he come back?"

"I don't know Sakura-chan. But I suspect that at some point, we'll all find out."

O-O-O

Hinata and Neji stood facing one another across the training field, staring each other down. Their eyes held a deep intensity, both challenging the other to be the first to look away.

The grass waved in the wind, still damp from the morning dew. The breeze had put a chill into the air. It was unusually cold; one could see their breath suspended in the air for a moment, before it would fade from sight. Still, the two ninja took no notice. They were both wearing coats, and besides; the task ahead of them drew all of their attention, sparing nothing for such trivialities.

Neji held his right hand into the air, a kunai clenched between his fingers. "Ready?" His only answer was Hinata's simple nod of her head, her eyes never leaving his gaze. In a flash, he tossed the kunai to the side of the field. It landed harmlessly in the grass. Both ninja waited, muscles tensing as they prepared to strike.

The kunai detonated, the explosive tag placed upon it having burned to the end of its fuse; the Hyuga ninja sprang at one another.

The distance between the combatants shrunk rapidly as they charged, byakugan activating as they ran. Hinata pulled a kunai out of her pouch, throwing it at her cousin's head.

A sharp clang ran through the air as Neji tossed a kunai of his own to deflect the incoming missile. His arm flashed out, aiming at the tenketsu at the center of his cousin's forehead.

Hinata blocked the attack, trying to counter with a strike of her own. Neji, however, rather than blocking, attacked with his other arm. Hinata was forced to abandon her own attack simply so she could turn the new blow away. Neji continued to strike at her, refusing to allow her the time she needed to prepare a blow of her own.

Dodging two more strikes, Hinata felt her confidence slipping. It was the same as always. Neji was using his superior height to his advantage. She was able to keep up to him now, but he could use his longer reach to prevent her from taking the offensive. His attack faltered for a moment however - not even a second - but it was all Hinata needed to counter with an attack of her own. She stepped forward, aiming to take the initiative from her older cousin.

A small ghost of a smile found its way onto Neji's face. It appeared that his feint had worked. He slapped Hinata's arm away, and slammed his palm into her chest. Hinata gasped in pain, and, slipping on the wet grass, began to fall. Neji's triumph was short lived, however, for as she plummeted, she swept the foot that had not lost its grip out, sweeping Neji's feet out from under him. They both hit the ground, Hinata pushing herself off, so that she was falling onto her enemy. A kunai appeared in her right hand, aiming at Neji's chest. His own came out to block it, and for a few moment, the two Hyuga locking gazes once more, putting all their strength into their kunai. Neji was forced to use both his hands, as his cousin was forcing all her weight down, making him struggle to hold her above him. He glared at her. "That was stupid. I could have killed you if I had taken the hit and attacked."

"But if you had taken the hit Neji-nisan; you would be dead as well." Her free hand flashed towards Neji's face.

With a burst of strength, he brought his legs up, kicking out to propel Hinata away. Her fingers grazed his temple as she was sent back. Neji's vision blurred as he scrambled to his feet. He shook his head, trying to clear the pain away. As his vision cleared, he realized it was almost too late; she was almost on top of him.

"Kaiten!"

A he began his spin, Hinata forced chakra into her feet, and leapt, soaring over her cousin's attack. Twisting in the air, she threw two kunai towards him as the spin ended. They sunk into the ground a few feet from Neji.

At first, he thought she had simply missed, but a sizzling sound reached his ear. Flipping away, he dodged out of the range of the explosive tags. He was surprised. This was just supposed to be a spar. Neither of the combatants had used something so dangerous in what was supposed to be friendly training before.

As he moved through the air, Hinata was moving towards his position. Touching down, he let out a small grunt of pain as Hinata drove her palm heavily into his ribs, over his heart. He fell to the ground, noticing as he did so that while the tags no longer hissed, there had been no explosions. Decoy tags. Also, there was no significant pain in his chest; his cousin had chosen not to put any chakra behind the blow. She offered a hand to help him up, while staring wide-eyed at his fallen form. The match was over; they both knew that in a real battle, a blow like that could easily decide the fight.

Neji accepted Hinata's hand, allowing her to help him up. It never even occurred to either of them how unlikely such a thing would have been when they were first genin. Neji swallowed his pride, not wanting to ruin the moment for his cousin. "Well, that is the first time you have won Hinata-san. You are obviously improving."

Bowing her head, the Hyuga heiress began to make her way off the field, Neji walking alongside her. "I wouldn't have won in a real battle Neji-nisan. You wouldn't be wearing all of your weights."

"Neither would you, I should think."

Hinata shook her head. "But still, you use twice as much as I do. If I were to try to fight you on equal terms, I would still be outmatched."

Neji nodded at this. "That is true, but I have always had the greater handicap, and you have never defeated me. You are closing the divide between our skills. I shall have to train harder from now on." While his expression changed not even the slightest, those familiar with the prodigy of the Hyuga clan knew his last sentence was not meant to be derogatory. "And you," he continued, "should be signing up for the next jounin exam."

At his suggestion, Hinata's countenance faltered. She shook her head strongly. "No."

Neji turned his head to look directly at her, surprised at both her answer, and the force with which it was delivered. "May I ask why not?"

Hinata nodded. "I do not yet believe I have the support I would need to challenge my father for leadership of the clan; nor do I feel prepared to fight him. Should I become jounin, I am sure he has all sorts of plans for me. Plans which I suspect I will want no part in. As long as I remain a chuunin, it is likely he shall not bother to take notice of me. If he thinks I am weak, as I always was, he shall, hopefully, not prepare to defend his position as clan head."

"You do not think he will step down when you announce your intention to lead the clan?"

At this, Hinata shrugged. "He may, he may not. Kurenai-sensei once said that while it is fine for a ninja to hope for the best, they must also plan for the worst."

"You should still be a jounin Hinata-san."

The pale-eyed woman shook her head. "Many people should be many things, Neji-nisan."

O-O-O

Hisashi Hisoka stood in front of a weapons case, looking at the various wares held behind the glass. He had all the supplies he and Naruto would need for the next while, but he had plenty of cash. They never really spent what they earned on anything but the necessities they were unable to field strip off their opponents, and he missed the weapons he had owned before he had fled his ruined village.

The owner of the store came over to him. "Is there something I can help you with, young man?" His tone clearly suggested that he did not believe there was; and that he did not want the youth loitering in his shop.

Hisashi pointed towards the case, and answered. He took care to speak slowly, making sure he chose the proper words. "The arm guards. How much?"

The merchant's eyes shot up in surprise momentarily. Maybe there was more to this punk than met the eye. Unlocking the case, he withdrew the item, allowing Hisashi to examine them. "You have a good eye my son. These are of the highest quality. Try them on and you'll see. They're a bargain, even at twenty thousand yen."

"Done." The weapon smith nearly coughed at that. Did this kid really not know how to haggle? "But give the shuko too."

"Those are another twelve thousand yen."

"No." Hisashi shook his head. "I mean, if I pay twenty thousand, they are included."

The merchant did some quick calculations in his head. Even if he threw in the shuko for free, it was still a better deal than he usually got. "Done."

O-O-O

Hisashi moved quickly down the trail. Had he realized how long he had been, he would not have stopped to purchase his new weapons. Naruto would be deciding whether or not to tear the village apart looking for him by now. Rounding a corner, he found four men standing across the trail.

"We were starting to wonder if you were going to show up." The man in the center left spoke, trying his best to look intimidating as he did so.

"Can I help you?" Hisashi tried his best to keep his tone casual, although his body was beginning to grow tense. He did not want a conflict.

"Give us your money, and all of your purchases, and we'll let you go." The leader pulled out his katana, the other three men following suit.

"Ah, bandits." The boy's tone seemed happy as he came to this realization. "I thought you were ninja. Go away."

"Why should we you little punk?"

Hisashi's eyes narrowed. "Because I said so." He dropped his packages, forming seals. Before the bandits could react, he flung his right hand forwards. Lightning shot out of his fingers; a small strike hitting each of his opponents. All four of them were flung backwards, dazed.

Stooping, Hisashi gathered up his packages before addressing the fallen criminals. "Be happy I'm tired." In a flash, he was gone, moving at top speed down the trail.

O-O-O

AUTHORS NOTES- PLEASE READ THESE

1) Well, only one more chapter to go, and then Naruto comes home to deliver a warning. But for what? Stay tuned.

2) I would like to sincerely apologize to everyone for taking so very long to update. I would like to offer some excuses, that, while I don't think are enough, do explain it somewhat.

First, I had exams for university. Immediately afterwards, I began working forty hours a week (and I still do). I play in a competitive Frisbee league, which takes up three nights a week. Finally, as an active member of a Canadian political party, I had a hell of a lot to do, as it looked like we were headed to the polls. Oh yeah, I have also had to adjust to my work load at home getting a lot bigger as one member of the family has moved out.

I have everything organized now, and I can only hope that I will be able to update sooner. I believe that I will.

3) I apologize for not answering questions sent to me. If you have a question for me, put your e-mail address in your review, and I promise I will answer within a couple of days. Otherwise, as I am very scatterbrained I will probably forget.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) _Constructive_ criticism is welcomed, as are compliments.

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

O-O-O

Orochimaru frowned upon entering his office. He was tired of dealing with the problems of the Hidden Village of Sound. Nothing was going well lately. Konoha was increasing pressure again, and while he enjoyed hearing about the deaths his ninja inflicted upon the pathetic village he had once called home, it was getting far too annoying. A war with the Leaf he could deal with, but there had to be some sort of payoff involved. The idea, originally, had been for him to possess the body of Uchiha Sasuke. For that, he would have been willing to deal with the constant skirmishing his village was now engaged in. It was his own fault, he knew, that the Uchiha had slipped away from him. He had been ready to transfer bodies for several years, and yet had chosen not to. He had gotten too greedy, he reflected. He had wanted the sharingan, and could have had it, but the lure of the mange sharingan had proven too strong. He had let Sasuke continue his quest for revenge, hoping that the boy he had selected as his next vessel would succeed in his task. Perhaps in slaying Itachi, Sasuke too would have unlocked the ultimate stage of the Uchiha doujutsu. But it hadn't worked out as he had hoped. Itachi was dead. This much he knew from several contacts he had been able to secretly maintain within Akatsuki after his departure; but he was unable to locate Sasuke. He had simply disappeared, taking with him all hopes of possessing his body - the entire reason Orochimaru had been willing to invade the Leaf in the first place. Ah well, it wasn't all bad. The border skirmishes were in fact quite useful. Promising shinobi were sent to the area to hone their skills in true combat. And disappointing ones, well, it was certainly a convenient way to get rid of them. All in all it wasn't so…

The scroll was sitting on his desk. That alone was not unusual. He was the leader of a ninja village after all. It was his job to review requests for missions, and as such, he always had many scrolls from prospective clients to examine. However, he had told Kabuto not to receive any mission requests today. As well, the kunai sticking through the scroll, nailing it to his desk, suggested that this was something else.

With a few quick seals, Orochimaru examined the room, as well as the scroll. There seemed to be no traps; whatever this was, it did not appear to be an attack. Pulling the kunai out, Orochimaru unrolled the parchment and began to read. His eyes widened in surprise.

_Greetings, Orochimaru-sama._

_I will not bother you with my name or personal history; it is beside the point. All that is relevant is that I am a ninja of considerable power. Before you dismiss this as foolish boasting, please take note of the fact that I have successfully penetrated into the heart of your village undetected, and delivered this note. I realize that it is an odd request, but I am in need of a large amount of help. I am a lone missing-nin with a personal problem. One that would take the backing of a powerful ninja village or criminal organization to solve. As I do not have the money to hire a village's aid, nor do I possess anything an organization such as Akatsuki would be interested in (besides which, I have heard they have lost several of their more powerful members), I have nowhere else to turn, but to you._

_As I have previously indicated, I do not possess the funds to hire your personnel. I do, however, believe we could come to an alternate payment method. There is a seal at the bottom of this letter. When broken it will contain a map which will guide you to where you must go if you wish to negotiate with me._

_I hope you will forgive me for not negotiating face to face, but I would rather not be in the center of your village, should the discussion turn sour. Along with the map you will also find a small vial. Yes, that is blood in it. I suggest that you have it analyzed._

_I hope to hear from you soon. With deepest regards: A prospective customer._

The sannin frowned. None of this made any sense. A lone missing-nin was actually approaching a village and attempting to hire them out? He triggered the seal, and examined the items that puffed into existence. There they were. A map, and a small vial of blood. Well, he didn't understand what was going on, but it shouldn't hurt to play along for the first little bit. He thumbed the intercom on his desk. "Kabuto, could I see you for a moment."

"Of course Orochimaru-sama." The door opened a moment later as his assistant strode in. He stopped in front of the sannin's desk, bowing. "What is your bidding, my lord?"

Orochimaru held up the vial, and casually tossed it to him. "Have this examined. I suppose it should be done as soon as possible. Get someone to take care of it."

Kabuto nodded. "If it is as important as you make it sound, I shall personally take care of it right now. I should be able to have results for you within an hour, my lord."

"Very good." The snake sannin dismissivly waved his hand. "Let me know how it turns out." As Kabuto left, he turned his attention back to the map. It seemed that whoever was sending this, planned to meet in territory belonging to the Hidden Village of Cloud. His eyes narrowed. He had never established any contacts with Cloud. They had fought a war with Konoha previously, he knew. Perhaps they were testing the waters to see what he would do. The first stage towards deciding whether they wanted to attempt some sort of agreement, perhaps? Yes, that was probably the most likely explanation. Cloud was hoping to form some sort of agreement, and were testing him to see what his response would be. Settling back into his chair, he began to think, examining the different angles. He had just twenty three minutes to do so, before Kabuto came running back into his office.

"Orochimaru-sama. The blood. I have done an analysis of it." He was panting, out of breath. It looked like he had sprinted the whole way to the office to report his findings. "Sasuke-kun. There's a one hundred percent match. It's Sasuke-kun."

"Sasuke? Are you sure?" The Sound leader was incredulous. Kabuto nodded, before straightening himself to attention.

"What are your orders, my lord?"

Orochimaru sat back, his mind analyzing the situation. Kabuto stood waiting as the time dragged on. After ten minutes, Orochimaru nodded. He handed the letter to Kabuto, and allowed him time to scan it before he spoke. "Send a standard three-man team. Jounin, mid-level. They should be competent fighters, but speed and stealth will be more important. One of them will also need to be an excellent negotiator. They are to find out who has sent this message and what they want. They are to offer to escort the missing-nin back to here - although should he refuse, they are not to press the issue. Tell them we require further proof that his proposed payment is intact, and if it is, that we are more than willing to help him with whatever he wishes to contract us for. They will get the particulars of his request and return. Hopefully with him, but again, we shall not press that matter. Do you understand, Kabuto?" When his assistant nodded, Orochimaru continued. With a couple of hand seals, he created a copy of the map. "Give them this. Tell the team that this is a short - to mid-term A-class mission. I want a team out of here before the end of the day. Can we do it?"

"Of course, my lord. I already have several possible teams in mind. I shall examine my choices quickly, brief them, and have them on their way in no more than four hours."

The snake sannin's mouth spread into a cruel smile. The kind a predator has when stalking its prey. "Excellent."

O-O-O

It took a little more than a week for the response to come back. Orochimaru entered his office to again find a scroll affixed to his desk with a kunai.

_Orochimaru-sama,_

_I received your envoys. I assumed you viewed them as disposable when you sent them to meet with me. I sincerely hope so, as I pretty much disposed of them. _

_Perhaps I was unclear in my last letter. When I stated that I wished to hear from you soon, I meant exactly that. You. I have no desire to relay messages back and forth through petty couriers. I have something you want, and I want to see you to discuss your help. If you are unwilling to meet with me, I shall have to attempt to find other help for my problem. Perhaps the village of Konoha will be interested in reacquiring the last sharingan user._

_I do not mean to resort to petty threats, merely to point out I do have at least one more option at my disposal. I understand you are hesitant to come to me. It is unreasonable of me not to expect as much, when I am refusing to come to you. Therefore, I would be more than willing to speak to you if you were to bring an escort. I will speak to you alone, but will not complain if you are escorted by a three-man team._

_I hope to hear from you soon. With deepest regards: A potential customer_

_P.S. If you do come, could we please avoid the unpleasantness of you bringing more than one team, and having the remainder stay hidden. I would really hate to have to deliver another scroll. I am supposed to be on the run. Staying in one spot is somewhat difficult you know._

Orochimaru's brow furrowed. He did not like the tone of the letter. Who was some missing-nin to talk down, or rather, write down, to him? Still, the man had a good point. He could indeed attempt to go to Konoha and obtain help from them. Orochimaru suspected that his former teammate, Tsunade, would be much less inclined to deal with a missing-nin than he was. It was unlikely, however, that they would allow the ninja to walk away. The snake sannin sighed. As much as he disliked it, he saw little choice but to follow the rules that this outcast set. Sitting up from his desk, the leader of the Hidden Village of Sound strode out of his office, into his assistant's work area.

"Kabuto! Assemble two high-level jounin. They, along with you, shall be my escort to meet the missing-nin we sent the last squad to make contact with."

Kabuto stood instantly. As he did, he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "Of course, Orochimaru-sama. You wish to only take one team, then?"

A cold stare told him all he needed to know. "I wish to do none of this." At that, Orochimaru strode out of the room, calling over his shoulder as he did so. "Two high-level jounin, Kabuto. I will appoint someone to run the village in my absence. I want you prepared to leave as soon as I return."

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama."

O-O-O

The Sound delegation made its way along the river. They were well inside the territory belonging to the Hidden Village of Cloud. The river cut through the territory, and led towards the area the map designated they would meet in. It seemed, in fact, that the missing-nin who sent them the map, had wanted them to follow the river. For what reason, they did not know. It appeared that their potential client merely wanted them to take the most direct route. None of them believed that, however. Orochimaru was one of the most deceptive and suspicious ninja known; he never took something at face value. Kabuto was his personal assistant. He, in this case, could truly claim to have learned from the best. The remaining jounin that made up the party were some of the best the Sound village had to offer. They had certainly not gained their positions without learning the folly of trust.

They were spread out as much as was possible, their muscles tense, their eyes scanning for trouble. There had been no serious problems so far, although they had needed to make several detours to avoid patrols from Cloud. One of the first lessons a ninja learned was not to draw attention to one's self, after all. They moved slowly, taking care in every movement. Not a twig snapped beneath their steps. It was slow moving, but Orochimaru had stressed the importance of stealth in this mission.

Kabuto had chosen their companions well. Varshin was the best scout that the Sound Village had to offer. He had done the reconnaissance on the Sand Village years ago, before Orochimaru had murdered, and temporarily assumed the role of, the Kazekage. The final member of the group was known as Gen. It was a nickname he had earned as a master of genjutsu. Neither Kabuto, nor Orochimaru had worked with him before, but they held the utmost confidence in his ability. He was one of the youngest jounin serving Sound. Unlike most of their shinobi, he was not recruited from another village, but rather was in the third graduating class from the Sound's own ninja academy. It was said by his fellow shinobi that had sparred with him that he was the greatest genjutsu user they had ever seen.

His talents were now being put to use to help mask his leader and his party. He was utilizing one of the techniques he was most proud of. It could be used against any number of opponents, with no increase in chakra, due to the fact it targeted an area, and not a person. All Gen needed to do, was use his blood to etch a small seal onto an object, perform the hand seals, and infuse the amount of chakra he wanted. Once done, it created a 'bubble' around the seal. Unless he had previously marked the person, anyone looking into the bubble would see exactly what they expected. The more chakra he used, the longer he could make the illusion last, and the larger the diameter of the bubble became. Currently, he had his illusion centered on a bracelet he was wearing, the bubble extending out fifty feet from him. Every few hours, he would signal that he needed a rest, taking the time to relax, before feeding more chakra into the illusion. It was a tedious task, which slowed the four even further than they otherwise would have been, but it was worth it. Orochimaru-sama had wanted stealth, and he would get it. All things considered, it would take an elite ninja to have a chance of finding them.

The first technique used was an advanced earth element ninjutsu. Only an elite ninja would be able to perform it. Varshin was in the lead, with Gen following. Orochimaru came third, as Kabuto acted as the rear guard. Varshin held up his hand, and the party came to a halt. Cocking his head, the scout seemed to be listening for something. At the last second, his hand sliced downwards, the signal to scatter, as he leapt to the side. "Move!"

The others heeded his advice, breaking in all directions as hands of dirt and stone shot out of the earth, grabbing at the spots they had stood in less than a moment ago. Varshin was the first to land from his dodge. Sparing a second, he whipped his head around, trying to see where the attacker was. He would have been better served to continue moving, however; a point driven home when two more hands shot out of the dirt to grab hold of his ankles. The remaining three Sound ninja continued to dodge the earthen limbs, as more and more hands shot out of the ground to latch on to their companion.

Varshin was panicking. He was being pulled into the ground by the attack, and if it succeeded, he had no illusions about his chances of survival. His entire body strained as he tried to thrash his way free of the binding jutsu. His hands began to run through the seals for a move he hoped would save him, but further hands shot out to pull his arms apart. A moment later, his arms had disappeared into the earth. It was over, he knew. His head sank below the ground, his mouth filling with dirt as he screamed.

As the unfortunate Sound ninja was being pulled to his death, a green-clad figure flashed through the upraised hands. It made straight for Kabuto, coming in from the side. Out of the corner of his eye, Kabuto saw the movement, and propelled himself straight into the air. The figure carried on below him, not bothering to adjust for the dodge. Beyond Kabuto was Gen, his back turned to the approaching danger. While the genjutsu specialist was an excellent ninja, physical combat was his weakest area. He was still more than proficient, but it was something his fighting style tended to avoid. His reflexes were dull; dodging the earth attack, he never even detected the danger approaching from behind.

From the air, Kabuto saw it all. The green blur extended an arm, and, moving it a top speed drove it into the back of his comrade. Blood erupted from Gen's chest as the limb tore right through his body. The green-clad enemy twisted his body, bringing his arm forward. The impaled teen flew off of it, landing with a splash in the river. His right arm drenched in blood, the cloaked figure turned to face down the sannin. "Those were two of the best that you have? Really, how in the hell is your village still functioning?"

Orochimaru remained cautious as he answered. He did not intend to be surprised, although he doubted he would be unable to escape from the earth jutsu, even if his opponent should try using it against him. "I thought that I was allowed three men to escort me? You certainly did not seem to indicate that you would harm them."

"I failed to indicate many things. If you didn't want them killed, you shouldn't have brought them along. By the same token, unless Kabuto there is expendable, tell him to stop sneaking up behind me."

The second-in-command of the Sound Village paused. Did this man have vision that allowed him to see behind him, or was he simply guessing?

"Really, Kabuto, you don't need to smell so surprised. You are standing upwind, after all."

Kabuto took the time to push his glasses back up his nose. Whoever this was, he was certainly good.

"So what now?" It was Orochimaru who broke the silence. "Do you wish to negotiate with me, or was this all an elaborate plan to bring me out here and ambush me. If it is the second, I must say it is a needlessly complicated way to commit suicide."

"We can negotiate, I suppose. We'll start with the important parts. Would you rather I cut off your head, or tear out your heart?"

The snake sannin shook his head, chuckling. "My now, we certainly are confident, aren't we? Will you at least tell me what became of Sasuke-kun? After all, it's only fair that I get some reward once I kill you."

"If you killed me, you would have your life. If you knew what I am, you would consider that reward enough. But, since you asked, after I beat him half to death, I took him home. I promised that I'd bring him home for someone, so I tossed him through her window."

"Naruto!"

The masked ninja whirled around. "Shut up, and stay out of it, Kabuto. I won't even bother to deal with you. I'm leaving that job for my teammate." He gestured to behind the Sound ninja, who turned to find Hisashi staring him down. He was breathing heavily, resting his hands on his hips.

"Really?" Kabuto's voice was filled with mirth. "He hardly seems like a worthy adversary to me."

"I'm fine. That earth jutsu took a hell of a lot out of me. But don't worry about it." His face slowly spread into a grin as he spoke. "I promise, I don't need much chakra to beat you."

Naruto returned to glaring at Orochimaru. The older man, it seemed, was not so much looking at him, as trying to look through him. "Uzumaki Naruto? I heard that you had died."

"Obviously not. Now then, I realize that you'd rather talk than fight, but try to understand; I'm a busy man. I've got a lot of killing you to take care of." At that, Naruto threw himself forwards. His right arm, soaked in the blood of his first victim, was cocked back. His hand, rather than forming a fist, was splayed open, allowing all five clawed fingers an opportunity to pierce into Orochimaru.

At the last moment, Orochimaru dodged to the left. Naruto's momentum prevented him from stopping his all out charge. He soared right past the Sound leader. As he did, Orochimaru's head sped forwards. His neck stretched beyond normal human means, as his fanged mouth headed for Naruto's throat.

Kabuto took three steps towards Hisashi, before funneling chakra into his legs, and leaping into the sky. Hisashi began forming seals. His chakra was definitely low. In this case, if he had to take an extra couple of seconds to make seals, fine. He hadn't lied in either case; he didn't need much chakra to fulfill his end of the plan, but that earth jutsu had taken way too much out of him. It was beyond his level, and he had rarely had time to practice it. If he was careful, he had perhaps three good jutsu left in him. He finished the last seal, and pulled six kunai out of his holster, three in each hand. Lightning crackled into existence, coating the six kunai. With careful aim, he threw the three in his left hand at his airborne target. There was no way Kabuto could dodge it in time.

Moments before the kunai struck home, Kabuto finished his last seal. In a puff of smoke, he disappeared, the incoming weapons bouncing harmlessly off of a rock that plummeted to the ground.

Hisashi spun, throwing the other three weapons behind him. Off balance, his aim was poor. Two sailed clean past Kabuto, while the third was deflected by one of the Sound ninja's own kunai. He moved back franticly, still off balance. His hands were racing through a new set of seals. A kunai, glowing with chakra, sunk into his forearm; he had been unable to fully dodge. The glow vanished as the jutsu was triggered. The chakra flowed through Hisashi's arm, severing every muscle it came into contact with.

Already on unsure footing, the pain was enough to knock the last of the Sun ninja from his feet. He landed hard, stifling a cry of pain as he did so. Kabuto came at him. His right arm useless, Hisoka's eyes flashed yellow. He was wounded, and almost completely depleted. Did he have enough chakra left for this?

The leader of the Hidden Village of Sound sunk his teeth into Naruto's throat, pumping venom into his bloodstream. There was a gurgle from Naruto, followed by his breath sliding out, as he hissed in pain.

In a puff of smoke, he disappeared. The destruction of the shadow clone left Orochimaru off balance. He began to fall forwards. Naruto landed on his neck, just below his head, pinning it to the ground. In a chopping motion, he drove his hand down. His claws were sharp as razors; they made contact with Orochimaru's flesh, and passed clean through it. In one move, Naruto had severed the head of one of the three sannin.

Which, along with his body, was dissolving into mud. Orochimaru streaked in from the left. With expert aim, he slid his sword through the cartilage between two ribs, piercing the heart. Raising his head, the snake sannin hissed into Naruto's ear. "How does it feel boy; to lose to your own trick?" He punctuated the question by twisting his sword, and grinned. He could not see Naruto's face, but his hiss of pain came clearly through his mask.

"You… tell- me." The clone vanished.

Naruto's fist impacted into the sannin's kidneys. Orochimaru flew forwards, landing in a heap. He picked himself up, blood trickling from his mouth.

Kabuto dragged himself back to his feet. Where the hell had that come from? How had that kid pulled off a lightning bolt without one of his hands? He could feel his heart pumping unsteadily. If it weren't for his ability to heal at such an advanced rate, he would be dead by now. At least his opponent wasn't doing too well, either. Hisashi was back on his feet as well, but he was wavering. It looked like all it would take was a good push to bring him down. He pulled out a kunai, and threw it. It barely went in the right direction. Unsteadily, he advanced, pulling out another kunai as he did so. His synapses were fried right now. If he didn't want to give his opponent time to recover, it looked like he was going to have to go hand to hand.

Hisashi watched his opponent come in. He was tired. He had never depleted his chakra to this level before. His eyes were still yellow. He had one trick left, but was he going to be able to pull it off without seals? Steadying his breathing, he concentrated, collecting what little power he still had left. A bit more than he initially thought. He probably did have the power to do this. Once. Desperation pushed his exhaustion to the back of his mind. He allowed himself to sink down to his knees. He wouldn't have the strength to stand after this anyways. Kabuto stood over him, and thrust his weapon downwards. Hisashi's arm flashed up; grabbing Kabuto's wrist, he played his last card. Energy flashed through Kabuto's body, paralyzing him.

Hisashi struggled to maintain the jutsu. It had taken the last of his chakra to set it off, but it took only a small amount to sustain it. If he could just draw the chakra out fast enough, he would be able to keep feeding it.

Naruto slowly moved towards his opponent. Beneath the mask, he wore a feral grin, watching the fear play across Orochimaru's face. "How does it feel then, coward? It must be terrible to feel such helplessness. To have to watch death approach you." He could feel the bloodlust within him. There was excitement in watching his terrified victim, but there was also impatience. After this, came the kill. And that was everything. The desire to hurt, to spread fear, they were powerful; but they paled in comparison to the lust for blood. Sometimes, Uzumaki Naruto would fight these urges, but now, he reveled in them.

Orochimaru shifted his stance slightly, leaning his body forwards, to obscure the motion of his left arm. He failed to completely hide it however, allowing Naruto a partial view of what he was doing. A five element seal. Orochimaru wanted to cut off his access to Kyuubi's chakra. Alright then, let him do that.

Orochimaru slammed the seal into Naruto's chest, grinning. Naruto responded with an uppercut that sent Orochimaru sailing backwards. As the sannin picked himself back up, Naruto slowly applauded.

"Wow! A five element seal. Nicely done! You know, I remember when you used that against me back in my first chuunin exam. That was what, six, no seven years ago. That was a great trick. It messed up my own seal so I couldn't access all the demonic chakra sealed inside of me. Worked great seven years ago. Hell, probably would work great now, if not for that one thing. Here, let me show you." He pulled the hood of his cloak down, revealing his hair, and reached up for his mask. "I suppose I could take my shirt off, and let you check out my chest. But still, you're probably smart enough to figure it out from my face." He let the mask fall to the ground, locking his gaze onto Orochimaru. The older man's eyes were wide with shock, realization slowly spreading across his face as he stared at Naruto. "That's right. No seal anymore." Naruto brought a clawed hand up, holding it in front of his own face. "Meet the new, and improved, Uzumaki Naruto."

He moved so fast that Orochimaru lost sight of him. One second, they were staring at each other, and the next, Naruto's foot was connecting with the bottom of his jaw, sending him into the air. Palm open, Naruto leapt after him, a rasengan swirling into view. When he had first learned the rasengan, training with Jiraiya, it had always been blue. Later, before he had deliberately removed the seal that the Fourth had placed upon him, he had discovered that when he used Kyuubi's chakra, it would appear red. Since he had removed the seal, they had become a third colour. Shouting, he drove the swirling purple ball of chakra into the back of his opponent.

"Rasengan!"

The ball exploded with power, sending Orochimaru further into the air. Landing, Naruto formed a cross with his hands. Since he left his village three years ago, he tried to avoid using his signature moves too often. If Konoha were to hear of someone fighting with shadow clones and rasengan, they would investigate. And Naruto had no desire to have to deal with his former village. But this time, he wanted to do it the old fashioned way. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Seven clones came into existence. They, along with Naruto, watched Orochimaru fall. The sannin hit the ground; there were multiple snapping sounds from his body. Two of the clones sprung forth, picking him up. One held the man in a full nelson, preventing him from bringing his arms together. The other wrapped both of his hands around their victims throat, preventing him from drawing air. The real Naruto, along with the other five clones moved into a circle around them. In unison, they formed the seals for the same jutsu, releasing it as one.

Six dragons, made purely of flames, streaked to the three figures in the center of the circle. As the two shadow clones were destroyed, Orochimaru shrieked in agony; his body withering into ash. The six held the attack for long after the screams had stopped. Finally, the dragons died away, the clones winking out of existence.

The center of the circle held no trace of remains; the heat had scorched everything away, fusing the surface into glass.

Naruto turned, and began making his way towards the remaining two combatants. Hisashi shivered; he rarely saw his companions face, and he did not like the grin that was on it at the moment. "Naruto, are you alright there?" There was panic edging its way into his voice. "That was pretty extreme, even for you."

"I'm fine." Hisashi allowed himself to relax slightly at the answer. "That bastard just had it coming, that's all. You're back on your feet. Able to pull out more than you need to use?"

"Barely, otherwise I'd have finished this guy off. This is that Kabuto you've told me about right?"

"Right."

Kabuto was struggling to break free, but it was no use. He didn't know how it was happening, but he could feel himself growing weaker and weaker. Whoever Naruto's companion was, he was draining the energy out of him. And the damn jutsu was still paralyzing him. Electricity was continually shooting through his body, scrambling his nervous system. He could feel his healing factor dealing with it, but even as it repaired the nerves, they were being refried. And the bastard was taking his energy to fuel it.

"So now what?" It was Hisashi who asked the question, directing it to Naruto, who was standing right in front of him and his prisoner. Instead of answering him, Naruto instead spoke to Kabuto.

"Kabuto, you betrayed what was once my home, the Hidden Village of the Leaf. I know what you are thinking, but no, I did not. They… abandoned… me! I… gave up my… life! And the village… they celebrated my death. Celebrated! I didn't return home, but I never betrayed them." His voice lowered to a whisper. "I hate traitors." He took a moment to let his words send fear through Kabuto, before he continued. "Still, you helped me in the chuunin exam, even though it was for your own gain. And I remember hearing rumors about the mysterious ANBU who healed Hinata while I fought Neji. His description matched you pretty well. So I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

His fist snapped forwards, knocking the Sound ninja unconscious. Hisashi let him fall, not bothering to keep the contact needed for his jutsu. There was no point. Kabuto was out cold.

Naruto picked the unconscious ninja up, and made his way to the river "You're lucky, Kabuto," he growled. "It's been a long time since I've gone out of my way to make an enemy's death less painful."

O-O-O

Sorry this took so long. I have been unable to get anything to my editor for some time. I thought about posting it unedited, but figured since it was already late, I may as well wait until he could correct it.

Here's the good news in any case. Chapter five is about half done. I plan to finish it this week. I figure I'll post it quick to make up for the delay. I'm going travelling all week, so I won't be home to type until Friday night, so it will be done Saturday. Alex is pretty busy, so I figure it will be another week to get edited. So, yeah, chapter five should be up inside of two weeks.

P.S. Naruto will return to Konoha at the end of next chapter. I know I said that last time, but this time it is for sure. Finally! Sadly, he won't interact with anyone inside the village until the first paragraph of chapter six.

P.P.S. Usually I respond to those who ask me questions right away, so that I don't forget. I'll be in the middle of a forest in Ontario for the next week, so that won't happen. But I'll be back on August 19th, and it will be one of the first things to do on my list.


	5. Chapter 5

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) _Constructive_ criticism is welcomed, as are compliments.

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

I AM VERY SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY. I HAVE HAD SOME PERSONAL PROBLEMS, WHICH HAVE NOW BEEN SOLVED.

P.S. FOR THOSE WHO NOTICE THE INCREASE IN GRAMMER MISTAKES, MY EDITOR IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR A VERY LONG TIME. ONCE AGAIN, SORRY.

O-O-O

Yamanaka Inoshi leaned against the wall, doing his best not to appear too nervous. It wasn't just that he had been summoned personally to see the Hokage; while that would normally put him on edge, today it paled next to the unease he felt due to his present company. He spared a glance to the occupied chair at the other end of the room. Morino Ibiki sat with his elbows resting on his knees. His hands were held together in front of his mouth as he looked straight forwards. Inoshi managed to suppress a shudder. Ibiki always put him at unease. His scars, combined with his personality, and that impassive stare, never failed to bother the mindwalker. Not for the first time, Inoshi found himself wishing he had been born into a different clan. His clan jutsu proved themselves very handy to the interrogation branch of the Konoha ANBU. He was often called upon to, mindwalk, was the commonly used term, a prisoners brain, searching for extra shreds of information the interrogators had been unable to extract. Usually, he did not need to walk through the memories of what Ibiki, along with the other interrogators, would do to a prisoner, but once in a while it was necessary. What he had seen, only furthered his dislike of, and discomfort around, the other man. He wished the third jounin would get here, so that they could meet with the Hokage, and he could get away from Ibiki. Of course, considering there was still ten minutes before they were supposed to speak with her, he suspected that it would be at least another two hours before the groups last member arrived.

"Yo." At the sound of the voice, the already nervous Inoshi nearly had a heart attack. The man had not spoken particularly loudly, nor attempted to startle him. Still, one did not ever expect Hatake Kakashi to show up for a meeting on time. Inoshi checked the clock on the wall; one did not ever expect Hatake Kakashi to show up for a meeting seven minutes early. That, if nothing else, spoke volumes of how important this meeting was. The silver haired jounin elected to stand against the wall also, although he seemed to be brave, or perhaps apathetic enough, not to be unnerved by the presence of Morino Ibiki.

One of the ANBU guards opened the door to Tsunade's office, motioning the group in. They found her reading a report, frowning at it. Standing straight, they formed a line in front of her desk. "Hokage-sama."

"Excellent. You're all here on time. Sit down, and we can begin." Gathering all of her papers, Tsunade began dumping them into various desk drawers. She waited for the three men to seat themselves, before she continued. "Now then, we must decide what we are to do. Kakashi, I presume you know Inoshi and Ibiki's thoughts on the matter at hand?"

"I do, Hokage-sama. I have reviewed their reports, at your orders."

"Very good. So then, tell me Kakashi, what are your thoughts on the situation with the prisoner Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Hokage-sama." Kakashi paused for a moment, deciding how best wanted to phrase his answer. "I do not believe that I should offer an opinion in this matter. Both Inoshi and Ibiki are excellent at information extraction, and have spent a great deal of time examining Sasuke since his return last year. I on the other hand, am neither trained in such methods, and have only met with Sasuke twice. I have gained no insight on the way Sasuke now thinks, and my time as his teacher indicates that I did not properly understand him when he was assigned to me as my student."

"Be that as it may Hatake, I request your opinion of the situation."

Kakashi sighed. He settled back into his chair, staring at the ceiling with his uncovered eye. Finally, he straightened himself out, and gave his answer. "Hokage-sama, I am of the opinion that Uchiha Sasuke would make an excellent addition to our ranks if he were freed and allowed to become a ninja once more. That being said, I urge strong caution in this matter. We have seen before, that he is willing to abandon everyone who cares for him, in his pursuit towards his own goals. No matter what my two colleagues here report, I believe that, even if we release him, he should be kept under close guard, and viewed with the utmost suspicion."

Tsunade nodded as the silver-haired jounin finished his report. "Thank you Kakashi, I shall bear that in mind. Now then; are the two of you satisfied with your reports?"

Both Ibiki and Inoshi nodded an affirmative at the Hokage's question. "Excellent. Then I take it you will both be able to explain your positions to me. Ibiki?"

Morino Ibiki nodded. His brows furrowed together as he tried to decide how he wished to phrase his answer. "Hokage-sama, it is pointless to dance around what some would consider unpleasant. My men and I generally obtain our results through the application of pain, both physical and psychological. In this case, it would have proven extremely difficult to extract anything from our prisoner. Uchiha Sasuke is an incredibly powerful shinobi, which means he is able to withstand most physical tortures. As well, he has one of the most tragic lives we have ever heard of. The psychological damage inflicted upon him over the years is extreme. Most of it obviously, was caused by Itachi, although the acceptance of Orochimaru's cursed seal as also taken its toll. As well, innumerable smaller factors have also twisted his fragile psyche. Because of this, psychological interrogation techniques are also quite useless against him."

"Wait a second." Tsunade cut Ibiki off, confusion in her voice. "Doesn't his past leave him more vulnerable to psychological techniques?"

"It does, but not in any way that will help us. Successfully utilizing psychological interrogation techniques requires breaking a person's mind, so to speak. Sasuke already has plenty of emotional trauma; but to function normally, he has to repress it. Successfully breaking his will destroys his ability to repress this trauma, and it all comes flowing back to him. Unable to deal with everything, his brain pretty much shuts down, making it impossible to get any information out of him."

Tsunade glared at the head of the ANBU interrogation squad. Picking up his report, she tossed it into his lap. "Then how the hell did we get all of this information from him? The strength of the Sound Village! Information on Orochimaru's latest body! How he ended up back here in Konoha! What, did he just tell you all of this?"

All three jounin winced at the volume of the Hokage's voice. Ibiki steeled himself, with a little luck she wouldn't start screaming at him. "Pretty much."

"Pretty much! And we're just going to believe the word of a traitor who just one day happens to show up back in the village?"

"Inoshi, a little help here."

Inoshi gulped as Tsunade's head snapped into position to glare at him. Help? Help nothing. Ibiki was doing a fine job of drawing the Hokage's wrath. Why draw her attention to himself. Drawing a breath to steady himself, Inoshi plunged into the conversation. "Hokage-sama, at the request of Ibiki-san I have spent a great deal of time inside the mind of Uchiha Sasuke. It is my professional belief that he can be trusted."

"And why is that Inoshi?" Tsunade's voice had lost the anger and sarcasm that it had held a moment ago. It was now replaced with curiosity. "Why should we trust a ninja who has abandoned the village? Who has in fact, killed ninja of our village?"

"It is in my report Hokage-sama."

O-O-O

_Sasuke sat in the corner of the inn, slowly picking at his meal. Despite the fact that it was mid-day, and small in was near full, he sat alone. His scowl, which had grown fiercer over the years, dissuaded any from approaching him. No one felt like approaching the young man; he appeared very angry, and very dangerous_

_Both appearances were true in this case. Time was running out, a fact which greatly displeased the Uchiha. Orochimaru had granted him a year in which he was free of any obligations to the Sound village. A year to hunt his brother. A year that was almost over. Sasuke held no illusions about his future. Orochimaru had chosen a different host, allowing Sasuke to remain free; but ultimately, the snake sannin would want his body. Normally, Sasuke paid no thought to this. All that mattered was finding his brother, and tearing his heart out. After that, he would have to decide what to do. But until then, Itachi was all that mattered._

_"Good afternoon. Is this seat taken?" Without waiting for an answer to his question, the asker seated himself across from Sasuke at the table. The Uchiha snapped his head up, a glare plastered across his face, planning on sending the fool scurrying away. The plan died as soon as he set eyes upon the man now occupying the table with him._

_He was dressed in a traveler's cloak of sorts. It was larger than was normal. It completely covered the man, so that no part of him was visible from beneath its green fabric. Despite the fact that the material did not appear water resistant, it resembled nothing more than an oversized raincoat. Somewhat more alarming was the fact that he was wearing a plain white mask; a trait that seemed to scream ninja. And generally, there was only one type of ninja that wore masks._

_"Who the hell are you?" As he asked the question, his hand slid down towards his kunai. Everything about this guy pointed to a hunter-nin, and Sasuke had no intention of letting the man get the drop on him._

_"Who am I?" The man gave a small chuckle at the question. "I believe you mean, am I a threat to you. Am I correct?"_

_The attempt at humour did nothing to lighten the Uchiha's mood. He continued to glare at the person who had intruded on his solitude. Undeterred, his companion pressed on._

_"No need to worry of course. I'm no threat at all. I merely saw someone sitting in the corner and thought to myself; 'now that man looks like he doesn't have a friend in the world. Maybe I should go and cheer him up.' And so, here I am."_

_Sasuke brought his hand above the table, displaying the kunai clenched in it. "You're either a hunter-nin, or an idiot. If you want to fight, go ahead; you wouldn't have approached me if you didn't have me surrounded. Otherwise, go away."_

_"Oh come on now;" the masked man's voice had taken on a bit of a whine. Other patrons had begun to notice the drama playing out, and were backing away. "I only wanted to talk to you." Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sasuke would swear the man was grinning beneath his mask._

_"Go to Hell."_

_"Fine then." Pushing his chair back, the man stood, and strode towards the door. Sasuke's eyes followed him the entire way. Pausing at the door, the man looked back, tossing out a final sentence before leaving the inn. "And here I had just wanted to talk about your family, Sasuke." _

_By the time the words had registered in Sasuke's head, the man was gone. Leaping out of his seat, the Uchiha was off after this mystery ninja. Despite having only a few seconds lead, the green cloaked stranger was already out of site. Moving fast enough to appear a mere blur, Sasuke was after him. The man was leaving an obvious trail. The speed he clearly possessed spoke highly of his skill. Despite this, there was no attempt to cover his tracks. There could be only one conclusion as to why such an adept ninja would leave such an obvious trail. Sasuke was being led. In the back of his head, he realized this, his brain warning him of the obvious danger. The danger was irrelevant however. For far too long, Sasuke had survived only for vengeance. Rational thought was now subjugated in his mind by the all consuming desire for revenge. The running form appeared in front of him now. He had caught up. In actuality, his prey had slowed down to allow the Uchiha to overtake him. Sasuke was too far gone however to notice. "Itachi!" _

_Alerted by Sasuke's scream, his opponent sidestepped. "No no, you have it all wrong. I'm not your brother. I'm not even from your village." Several dodges and backflips were needed to avoid Sasuke's next attacks. "Hell, I'm not a friend of your brother even." As Sasuke lunged, the man again stepped to the side, shoving him forwards. As Sasuke fought to keep his balance, the man continued. "You'll notice I'm only defending. I haven't even tried to fight you."_

_Dimly, the words registered in Sasuke's brain. Straightening himself, he faced the masked man down. "Very well. You said you wanted to discuss my family. What was it you wanted to say then?"_

_"Nothing much. Just that I know exactly where your brother is."_

_Sasuke's eyes narrowed, the pupils changing to hold three crescent wheels. Whoever this was, he was clearly trying to anger Sasuke; and it was working. The Uchiha seethed as he spoke, his anger clearly detectable in his voice. "Alright then. What is it that you want from me in exchange for the information? And while we're at it, why should I not kill you right now?"_

_Beneath his mask, the man smirked. Sasuke was cocky as ever. It was clearly time to teach his old rival a lesson. "Well let's see. Firstly, there is nothing you can hope to give me in exchange for telling you Itachi's whereabouts. And secondly, you shouldn't attempt to kill me for one very good reason. You're too weak. See?"_

_As the question was asked, the man seemed to vanish. Before Sasuke could even question his whereabouts, he was doubled over by a fist slamming into his gut. Falling to all four limbs, he coughed, trying to force air back into his lungs. His mind screamed at him to get back to his feet. His body would not obey however; the ninja standing above him held him completely in his mercy._

_The kick landed solidly against Sasuke's ribs. He spun through the air like a top, hitting the ground with a thud. Before he had even stopped rolling, his body was jerked into the air. Holding Sasuke by his collar, the masked ninja shook him so hard that the Uchiha's neck nearly snapped. "you think to threaten me? You could never dream of defeating me. You could never hope to fight Itachi; do you understand? You are nothing!"_

_Sasuke's hand lashed out, his fist catching his opponent's temple. Dazed, the man released his hold over Sasuke, allowing him to drop back to the ground. He quickly followed through with a dazzling taijutsu offensive, landing kicks and punches as fast as he could. His sharingan eyes spun, guiding his strikes. His ribs felt like they were on fire, and the pain in his left lung was almost enough to shake his vision. Blood trickled out of his mouth, but nothing would stop him. Finally, the cloaked ninja managed to catch one of the incoming punches. Undaunted, Sasuke used his other hand to grab the offending limb around the wrist. Unexpectedly, he pulled the arm forwards! Surprised by this tactic, his opponent stumbled, off balance, towards him. Sasuke twisted his entire body, and pulled. The added momentum caused the man he was fighting to continue forwards, past him. As he did so, Sasuke spun his body full circle, delivering the most powerful kick he could muster to the back of his opponents head. The man flew forwards; even farther than he had sent Sasuke. It was over ten feet before he landed. A normal opponent would have been out of the fight right there, unconscious at the very least. But already, he was climbing back to his feet, recognizing the significance of the chirping sound behind him._

_Naruto spun, facing down Sasuke, who was coming at him with a chidori. Hatred seething through him, Naruto almost created a rasengan. Fighting down the urge, he struggled to keep control of his hatred and bloodlust. No fast death for this one. Naruto had a much better plan in store for him._

_Sasuke's sharingan saved him from dying to his own attack. With what seemed like no time left, his target slid to the side.It had happened too fast for Sasuke to react, but his eyes had at least forewarned him of what was to come. The man sent a punch at the inside of Sasuke's extended arm, catching it on the joint of the elbow, and causing it to fold closed. Even as the punch connected, Sasuke dispelled his sharingan. His own arm folded in, catching him square in the face. The last bits of chakra on his fingertips pierced into his face, leaving bloody lacerations. Sasuke stumbled back, shaking as he stared at his bloodied hand. There was no way that was possible. The speed needed to do something like that was inhuman!_

_Naruto stood in a fighting stance, but made no move to continue. Let the traitorous bastard stand there and feel scared. He wanted the asshole to feel terror. "It doesn't matter if your fancy eyes can see me, if you're to slow to react, now does it?"_

_Sasuke glared at him, through his eyes stung from blood dripping into them. "Only one other person has ever said that to me; and I surpassed him years ago."_

_Vanishing from existence, Naruto reappeared behind him. He slammed an elbow into Sasuke's left shoulder, tearing it from the socket. Grabbing the arm with both hands, he twisted it over his head, and slammed it down. Sasuke screamed as he felt his arm shatter, one of the bones jutting out of his skin. "You will never surpass me."_

_Staggering, Sasuke attempted to flee the fight. Whomever this ninja was, Sasuke could no longer hope to fight him. His flight lasted for only seconds before it was ended. The masked figure swept his legs out from under him. He landed on his left side, his ankle cracking as it awkwardly hit the ground. That pain never even registered in his brain however. It was a miracle he did not pass out from the pain as his destroyed left arm hit the ground. As Sasuke writhed in pain, Naruto delivered what would be the last blow of the fight. An axe kick landed on Sasuke's right knee. That pain did register. The Sound ninja screamed as yet another of his bones shattered. As the darkness reached up to claim him, Sasuke found himself hoping for death._

_His eyes opened weakly. It seemed he was not yet dead. Slowly, the picture before him came into focus. It seemed he was moving. Shifting his head caused him to hiss in pain, but allowed him to see that he was being carried by the man with whom he had fought. His hiss of pain had drawn the man's attention. He threw a glance backwards towards his captive. "Ah excellent, you're awake. We've just arrived at our destination."_

_Ignoring his body's protests, Sasuke raised his head to look around. He had no idea where he was, but it seemed that they were entering some form of building. He tried speaking, and was disgusted to find he barely had the strength. "What are you- Aaaahh!"_

_His question was interrupted by a cry of pain, as he was tossed unceremoniously to the floor. Once again, his world faded to black._

_When Sasuke regained consciousness for the second time that day, his vision was quickly focused on the kunai imbedded in the floor before him. Reaching out, he grasped hold of it, pulling it out of the wood. Suddenly, he was pulled to his feet. He swung his arm ineffectively, attempting to drive the kunai he held into the chest of his captor. _

_A strong hand clamped onto his wrist, halting his swing, but not even attempting to disarm him. A voice growled into his ear. "Patience now. You'll want that weapon in a moment." Half guiding, half dragging, the unknown man led Sasuke towards a door at the side of the war. He released the Uchiha's arm, seemingly not worried at the least by the prospect of having a kunai buried in his back. Using his free hand, he opened the door, revealing a small, well lit room. Helping Sasuke in, he held him steady for a moment, before letting go, forcing him to support his own weight. As fast as Sasuke could, he spun to look at his captor. _

_"What is this?"_

_In the center of the room, tied to a chair, was a second captive. Sasuke felt his knees wavering as he stood looking at the man. Tied to the chair, was the last remaining member of his family, Uchiha Itachi. The man was in worse shape than his younger brother. In fact, just looking at him, Sasuke could tell just how greiviously he had been mauled. Every part of his body was covered in blood. His eyes had been gouged clear out of their sockets. It looked as though his wounds had stabilized, although it was doubtful he would be able to survive more than a few days without a large amount of medical attention._

_"Why this is what you wanted, is it not?" The masked ninja cocked his head curiously to the side, as though he could not understand Sasuke's emotions. "To kill your brother? He is before you, I have seen to it that he cannot fight back. Strike him down, so that you can finally avenge your clan."_

_"No!" The response was torn from Sasuke's chest before he had even considered the words. It was the truth however, and the explanation flew out of him as he spoke. "I live to kill my brother, but not like this. I must meet him in battle, and defeat him. To kill him as he sits here helpless after his fight with you does nothing. It will grant me no peace, nor will it avenge the spirits of my murdered clansmen."_

_The shrouded ninja rolled his shoulders, pitching his weight away from the wall he had been leaning on. "Is that so? While what makes you think that I care at all about what you or your family's spirits might want?" As he advanced, a low growl began to enter his voice. "In case you haven't caught on, I've seen to it that you aren't in the best of shape yourself."_

_Sasuke tried to back away, and bit back his pain as he felt his wounded ankle protest. It was all he could do to stay on his feet. Mustering his last reserves of strength, he drove his arm forwards, plunging his kunai into the chest of his approaching opponent._

_Rather than giving an indication of pain, the man merely ripped the weapon out of his chest, laughing as he caught the falling Sasuke. "Is that the best you have, Uchiha?" Sliding behind Sasuke, he wrapped his arms around the wounded ninja's body, pulling him tight embrace. His mask brushed Sasuke's ear as he tilted forward to whisper to him. "You are too weak, Uchiha. You could never have done this without me." Walking him forwards, he continued to speak, as he pressed the kunai back into his captive's hand. "Don't worry though. I'll help you do this. It's fitting after all. Had you met your brother alone, you would not have been able to kill him. Why then, should you claim the credit alone now?"_

_Itachi was unconscious, and there was no way that he would wake up soon. Or ever again, for that matter._

_Seeing his brother's helpless form brought panic to Sasuke. It wasn't that he cared about his brother; he still hated him with every fiber of his being. But this went against what he ad planned. He had to win in a glorious battle. He had to stand over the kill, and know that he had done it. That he, Uchiha Sasuke, had proven the stronger of the two. That it was he that was the clan genius. That his family could finally rest in peace, knowing that their murder had been avenged._

_But it was not to be. Fighting the motion all the way through, he felt the man who had defeated him slash the kunai out, its edge tearing away at Itachi's throat. Sasuke felt himself released from the binding grasp, and, too wounded to support himself without warning, collapsed again to the ground._

_"Why?" The question came out of his mouth as he watched his brother's lifeblood drain away. "Why have you done this to me?"_

_The masked ninja stood above him, looking down on the shattered nanja and radiating contempt. "Why? Because of what you have done with your life, Uchiha Sasuke. In your quest for revenge, you have dismissed the power, and the feelings of those around you. And so, you have destroyed many lives, including mine. When your brother destroyed your life, you became his enemy, thirsting for revenge. In your obsession for it, you helped destroy the lives of myself, and those I care about. And so, I take my revenge on you, by removing yours. I shall not kill you Uchiha Sasuke. Rather I shall let you live out your life, knowing that you have failed in your only purpose for living. Sleep well Uchiha. And may your rest be haunted by the knowledge that you shall never fulill your purpose for existing."_

_The last thing Sasuke saw was a foot moving towards his face. His brain barely registered the impact._

O-O-O

Tsunade looked angry enough to tear someone's head off. "And? What the hell does this have to do with anything? Tell me Inoshi, how does the fact that he's managed to kill his brother justify re-integrating him into the village?"

"I did not claim that it did." Inoshi was quick to point this out, attempting to deflect the Hokage's wrath.

"Really?" Tsunade began to flip through the pages in front of her. Finding what she wanted, she stabbed her finger onto the report victoriously. "It is my conclusion that there are two possible courses of action to take in regards to Uchiha Sasuke; execution, or reintegration."

"Hokage-sama, if we do not re-grant Sasuke citizenship, what shall we do with him?" Caught off guard by the Yamanaka's question, Tsunade settled back into her chair. Arching an eyebrow, she urged him to continue.

Inoshi pressed on, laying out his argument. "We cannot allow him to leave freely, to pursue what course he may; his sharingan makes him far too dangerous to do such a thing. For the exact same reason, we cannot allow him to simply be imprisoned. Think back to the damage Mizuki did when he escaped from prison. Who knows what horrors Sasuke could commit? No, if he is not made one of us once more, then the only safe course is to kill him, removing any threat he may pose in the future."

Tsunade considered what was said with a nod. "A good argument, but only for having him executed. What makes you say we can reintroduce him?"

Sitting and listening, neither Kakashi nor Ibiki's expressions changed. But still they were surprised by what they were seeing. Inoshi had seemed so nervous before, but now, explaining the psychological analysis he had performed, he seemed to regain the mentality more befitting a ninja.

"His purpose in life has been destroyed. If we can create a new one for him, and convince him to accept it, he will belong to Konoha once more."

Kakashi decided perhaps he should enter the debate after all. Clearing his throat to draw the attention of those in the room to himself, he voiced his concerns with what he was hearing. "When I taught Sasuke, he said he had two goals. The first was to kill Itachi, which despite what your report says, he has been successful on some level. The second goal however, was to rebuild his clan. How can you say he no longer has a purpose?"

Inoshi's grin showed he had anticipated the question. "They were linked you see. Sasuke believed he had to kill Itachi before he could rebuild the clan. It was not just to avenge his family however. Sasuke believes that when Itachi murdered their father, he assumed the mantle of the head of the clan. True he destroyed the clan, but he was still its leader. He even gave Sasuke orders to live for revenge. All the years that Sasuke pursued Itachi, he felt, in some small way, that he was following his brother's orders."

"He believed that when Itachi left him alive, he gave Sasuke orders to kill him?"

Inoshi nodded, "Indeed. But not just to kill him, to defeat him. And that is the central point here. In Sasuke's mind, he killed his brother, but did not defeat him. Because of this, the clan head died, while Sasuke failed to carry out his orders." Inoshi paused, waiting several seconds for dramatic effect. "And because of this, Sasuke believes that he cannot ever inherit the role of the leader of the clan. He has failed in his mission, and can never be issued a new one to redeem himself. As far as he is concerned, the Uchiha clan is dead."

The other three nodded slowly, accepting the enormity of what had just been laid before them. The three jounin turned to look at their leader, waiting to see what her command would be.

The Hokage pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes shut. "I'm not making a decision now. There is far too much to consider to allow me to make a decision right this second. Still, if we allow him to return, what purpose do we offer him?"

At this, all three of the jounin finally smiled.

"To serve the Hokage."

"To ensure his clan is not remembered only for its betrayals."

"To protect the village."

For the first time all morning, Tsunade managed a smile.

O-O-O

One year and nine months. It had been a full year and three quarters since Sasuke had been returned to Konoha. And now, finally, they had decided what to do with him. Finally, they had let him free.

Tsunade had came to his cell and talked at length with him. He had listened; after all, he had nothing better to do. And so, she had offered him a choice. Defend the village, and restore honour to his dead clan. Or die, and join them in the afterworld. It had been more complicated than that of course; but in the end, that's what it boiled down to. And so, of course, Sasuke had accepted.

He walked down the street, a reinstated member of the ranks of Konoha's ninja, a free man. In actuality, he was not free. Two ANBU trailed behind him in plain sight, about twenty feet back; no doubt there were more that he could not see. He was a ninja again, but it seemed he still had to earn trust.

He paused, noting the person walking towards him. A smirk came to his face as he regarded her. Most people he had seen since his release yesterday, had attempted to avoid him. In fact most people seemed to go out of there way to avoid him when they saw him approaching. It figured that this would be the exception to the rule.

"Sakura. Here to ask for a date, I'm sure."

The kunoichi regarded him through a mask of anger. Her words came slowly, as she clearly tried to keep herself calm. "Sasuke. I figured I should at least say hello to you, but I'm no longer sure I care to." Spinning around, she began to walk away.

Not content with allowing her the last word, Sasuke fired a parting remark at her back. "Sasuke? Not Sasuke-kun? Why Sakura-chan, I'm hurt. I was hoping we could be friends. After all, I seem to recall you making me a very intriguing offer before I left."

Sakura wasn't sure what did it. Maybe it was his words, maybe it was his tone. Most likely it was the combination of the two; but whatever it was, it hit a nerve. Spinning on her heel, Sakura slammed her fist into Sasuke's chest before he had a chance to react. Sasuke folded with the blow, collapsing to his knees. His eyes bulged wide with surprise. He had heard Sakura had become Tsunade's apprentice, but he had never witnessed the strength the Hokage had trained into her.

Dropping into a crouch, Sakura locked eyes with the gasping Sasuke. "That offer is dead. But by all means, look me up if you need a sparring partner. I so rarely get to go all out." At that she rose, and began to walk away. After a few steps, she glanced over her shoulder to deliver a final comment.

"I pulled that punch, by the way."

O-O-O

Hisoka crouched low, hidden within a rocky outcropping, keeping watch over the surrounding terrain. He suppressed a shudder as another scream from the man being held captive some ways behind him reached his ears.

He had been with the man called Naruto for some years now. While he had grown accustomed to most of his traveling companions traits, there were a few that he still could not handle. Naruto's expertise and occasional enjoyment of torture was one of them.

This seemed out of place however. All of Naruto's previous victims had been people that he had hated. Itachi and Sasuke were prime examples. Orochimaru would have been another; Naruto had mentioned several times his disappointment that had not made the sannin suffer longer. But this was different. This Rock ninja they had encountered had no previous encounters with either of them. He had been sent to offer them a job, which was not uncommon. The two of them occasionally took on mercenary work to get needed funds. Naruto rejected most prospective clients, and occasionally even killed one who requested a particularly sinister mission, but never had he tortured any of them. Hisoka didn't know what the proposed mission was; the contract had been delivered on a scroll. Naruto, upon reading the scroll, had destroyed it and proceeded to grab the unfortunate ninja who had delivered it. None of this made any sense to Hisoka; whatever was on that scroll had clearly upset his friend however.

Another scream made its way up to Hisoka's perch.

O-O-O

The Rock ninja shuddered in terror as the figure before him stalked back and forth. It had removed its mask, and was looking at him with pure hatred.

"For the last time, why did you attempt to hire me!"

The captive clamped his eyes shut as he answered, his voice trembling with both pain and fear. "We're recruiting as many missing-nin and mercenaries as we can. I swear, I don't know why!"

"Not good enough!" The ninja screamed at the response. His cries grew even louder as claws tore into his chest. He felt the nails close around one of his ribs, tearing it clear out of his body. "Now then, I am forced to ask again. Tell me everything you know about this mission."

"Noth… noth-ing." The voice was barely above a whisper now. "Please, I… I swear. I don't…" His voice gave out, his head falling forwards.

Naruto regarded the man before him for a moment, then nodded his head. He believed the man. He turned to leave, casually tossing an explosive tagged shruiked over his shoulder into the captive's neck.

"How unfortunate."

O-O-O

"We're going home."

Hisoka started at the voice. He had not heard his comrade come up to be standing beside his hiding place. "Home?" There was genuine confusion in is voice.

"Konaha."

O-O-O

Tsunade sighed as she entered her office. Another boring day of paperwork. What she wouldn't give to be able to start her mornings with something other than paperwork.

"The security this village has is pathetic, Hokage-sama."

Perhaps her paperwork would be slightly delayed this morning.

O-O-O

There's the latest chapter. Hope the next one will come a lot faster.


	6. Chapter 6

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) _Constructive_ criticism is welcomed, as are compliments.

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

O-O-O

"The security this village has is pathetic, Hokage-sama."

The voice, coming from the corner of her own office, surprised Tsunade. Crouching low, she spun to face the voice. She held a defensive posture, preparing for whatever the intruder had planned.

"Oh come now, all these theatrics. Can't we even exchange a simple greeting?" A cloaked figure came out of the shadows. Holding himself as non-threateningly as possible, Naruto bowed low. "Greetings, Tsunade-sama. It is indeed a pleasure to meet you. I hope you had a restful sleep last night."

They matched stares, face to mask. Tsunade held her defensive stance, making no move to return the greeting. It was once again Naruto who broke the silence. "You don't seem interested in saying hello to me. Should I interpret that as meaning that you don't know who I am?"

"Oh, I have a theory or two about that."

"And may I ask what they are, Hokage-sama?"

"You're a missing-nin; a mercenary who is currently wanted by almost every ninja village for committing some crime or another against them. The Sound village has offered a five million ryou reward to any person or ninja village who can offer conclusive proof of your death."

Tilting his head back to look at the ceiling, Naruto let out an amused sigh. "Yeah, I suppose that I've gone through quite a few of those guys. Free information if you want; my partner and I are the ones who took out Orochimaru and Kabuto."

This wasn't new information to Tsunade; it had long been suspected. Still, if this was who she thought it was, she needed to keep him talking as long as possible. This man had taken down Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sasuke, Itachi, and who knew how many other S-level ninja, apparently with ease. If she was able to stall, he might be discovered before the fight started. She would welcome the backup. "Is that so?" she asked, making it appear as though surprise were creeping into her voice. "I suppose I have heard of you. You must be the one they call The Masked Demon."

"Indeed I am. I must say, it's always nice to be recognized. I suppose you have something of a file on me, no?"

"I might. Is that what you're here for then? Trying to decipher what the various villages know about you?"

"No, no, not at all. I merely came to give you a little bit of information that you may find interesting. Your village is about to be attacked."

At this, the stalemate finally ended, with Tsunade bolting forwards. Naruto dodged to the side, tripping her feet out as Tsunade moved by. Rather than fight to stay upright, Tsunade went with the momentum; tucking herself into a ball and rolling back to her feet.

"I am not here to harm you!" Naruto was furious as he spoke "I have come here to warn you. But please by all means, continue attacking if you want to start something," his voice dropped into a menacing growl as he continued to speak. "I guarantee that I'll be the one to finish it."

Tsunade regarded him warily as he picked herself up from the ground. Slowly, slightly more relaxed than before, she stood to face him. "Alright then; my village, despite having heard nothing of the sort, is about to be attacked. Of course the only reason I know this, is because I've been told by a missing-nin who-"

"I'm not a missing-nin."

"Oh no? Then what village do you swear allegiance to?"

"None. And which village, might I ask, has reported me missing?"

Tsunade looked thoughtfully at Naruto for a moment, before finally nodding and conceding the point. "Fine, you're not a missing-nin, you're merely an S-level criminal. Now why in the world am I supposed to believe you?"

"Because I have proof." Reaching into his cloak, Naruto withdrew a scroll, and tossed it to the Hokage. Catching it with ease, Tsuande opened it, and began to examine the contents. At first she read slowly, spending more time focusing on the man in front of her, trying to keep her guard up. But then, as she continued to scan the scroll, she became more and more focused on it. Naruto, already intimate with the scroll's contents began to speak, summarizing what Tsunade was reading.

"The Hidden Villages of Stone and Rain have formed a secret alliance. Together, along with just about every missing-nin and criminal-nin that they've been able to find, they plan to attack your village. You'll need to prepare quickly if you hope to survive."

Tsunade looked up from the scroll, glaring at Naruto. "I don't believe this."

The masked figure shrugged, the action barely noticeable beneath his cloak. "I could care less as to whether or not you believe it. The fact of the matter remains that it's true. If you don't believe me, feel free not to prepare your defenses. I guarantee that sooner or later you'll decide that I was telling the truth."

"None of this makes any sense," as the Hokage spoke, she began holding up her fingers, marking the points she was making. "Why would the two villages decide to attack us? How does some random missing-nin know all of this? Why should I believe someone who broke into my office? Why the hell would you just come and tell me without demanding something in return? And where the fuck are my guards. How can those two damn ANBU outside the door not have got their asses in here yet!"

"First," Naruto raised a finger as he spoke, mimicking the Hokage. "The Hidden Villages of Stone and Rain have never got along with you all that well; that tends to happen when you're the strongest power. Traveling around the continent I learned that Orochimaru's war with you really damaged your aura of invincibility. Everyone figures that if they're ever going to take you down a peg, then now is the time to do it.

"Secondly, I know because they tried to hire me to lead the first wave of shock troops and canon fodder. I tortured everything that their emissary knew out of him, came here, gathered some information, and gave them to you.

"You should believe someone that broke into your office because, clearly, it was the only way the person could gain access to you, and finally, because it shows they are serious about warning you.

"Next up, I gave you the info without asking for anything, because… I owe some people in your village."

Tsunade turned her head, puzzled.

"A long time ago, a few of the ninja from your village helped me out. There are a couple old debts I need to repay. As far as I'm concerned… we're even now. As for your guards, I had a jutsu up to prevent any sound from escaping the room…

"It's gone now."

"Guards!" Naruto winced. His hypersensitive hearing had not appreciated the Hokage's shout one bit. He began inching towards the large window at the back of Tsunade's office. He crouched low, taking on a stance that allowed him to prepare for either fight or flight. He was a little disappointed that Tsunade had chosen to take this path, but it didn't bother him too much. Let the village get destroyed, as far as he was concerned, the majority of the villagers deserved it. Sure, he'd be a little disappointed about his old friends, but even there he felt some anger seething. There was too much of the Kyuubi in him to simply forget that they had turned their backs on him.

The two ANBU moved with caution; while one moved towards Naruto, the other crept between him and Tsunade, hoping to shield the Hokage should this intruder unleash some sort of sudden attack. As the tension in the room mounted, all three of the soon-to-have-been combatants found themselves surprised by Tsunade's next order.

"Both of you stand down! I said stand down! Now!" Her guards finally heeded her orders, both of them halting where they were, although they did not seem to relax any. "I want both of you to leave at once. You, find Nara Shikamaru at once, it isn't noon yet, so start by looking at his home. I don't care how much he complains, tell him if he isn't here in ten minutes, I'll have him pulling double shifts on guard duty for the next year. As for you, grab a few others, and start spreading the word. I want the emergency dispatch corps here as quick as possible. Now go!"

The ANBU vanished instantly. It wasn't that they trusted leaving the Hokage alone with this stranger, but by now all of the guards had learned that no matter what, you didn't want to incur the wrath of the Fifth. In a fraction of a second, only Naruto and Tsunade remained in her office. Once again, they stood facing each other, tense as they considered what the others next move may be. This time, it was the Hokage that was the first to break the silence.

"I trust you. Or at least, I believe that I cannot afford to ignore your warning. As far as trust goes, I'm willing to dismiss my guards while I'm here with you.

Naruto merely nodded. "I take it this Nara fellow is some sort of advisor or strategist. What the hell is an 'emergency dispatch corps' though?"

"Any Konoha genin or chuunin who are exceptionally talented in the fields of speed and stealth are placed into the E.D.C. In the event of an attack such as this, they can act as a messenger system, ensuring that we can get a more accurate picture of the overall battle."

"Pretty generous of you to just tell all of this to a potential enemy."

"If you were an enemy, I'd be dead or battling for my life, not setting up the opening stages of a defensive plan."

"Be that as it may, Hokage-sama, I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop giving away our secrets to someone who does not appear to belong to our ranks." Awake far earlier than was his norm, Shikamaru stood in the entryway to the office. His hair still bore evidence of a night's rest, and he had clearly dressed in a hurry; he was not even wearing a shirt beneath his crumpled vest. The jounin stifled a yawn. "What have we got here?"

"Apparently, we're going to war." That took care of the last of Shikamaru's drowsiness. Tsunade tossed Naruto's scroll over to her war advisor. Shikamaru pored over it, reading as quickly as possible.

"Where did we get this information from?"

"It's been supplied to us from this charitable soul. I'm sure you recognize his description from the bingo book of missing-nin."

Shikamaru almost winced as Tsunade's words confirmed his fears. So it was who he'd thought. This had the potential to get really ugly really fast. "And why, exactly, is a so-called demon helping us out, or is there some other reason he's here?"

"He claims he owes some of our shinobi some sort of debt."

"Is that so?" Shikamaru stared at Naruto, attempting to discern something from him. As usual, the mask and cloak Naruto was wearing made such an attempt useless. On the rare occasions the Nara genius put his mind towards something, it was very rare that he was unsuccessful at it; this, however, proved to be one of the few times. Accepting defeat, Shikamaru turned away, and strode to one of the shelves lining the office. He was just grabbing a map when one of the first genin arrived.

A young boy came bolting into the office, skidding to a stop and panting for breath. "Tamiko Yoshi reporting as ordered for the E.D.C., Hokage-sama."

"All civilians are to evacuate to the prepared positions at once." The order came from Shikamaru rather than Tsunade. He deliberately avoided naming the shelter behind the Hokage monument. He didn't trust this missing-nin, and wanted to avoid giving that secret away. "All ninja are to form into their squads at their assigned areas immediately. I want those orders broadcast now."

Shaking, the child nodded his acknowledgement. Turning, he ran out of the office again, barely avoiding two more of the messengers who were entering the office.

Unrolling the map onto Tsunade's desk, Shikamaru barely even glanced up. "Wait in the next room. No one is to enter unless we call for a runner. I do not want to be disturbed."

"Alright then." Looking up at Naruto, he gestured to the map of the village, spread out across the Hokage's desk. "If you're here to help us, then tell me what you know." With a nod, Naruto moved forwards, and, gesturing to the western wall began relaying his information.

"I gathered as much information as I could as I passed though their lines. The first attack will be directed here, against this portion of the western wall."

It continued for close to an hour; Naruto talking, and Shikamaru occasionally asking questions or dispatching one of the E.D.C. with a message. Tsunade looked on, listening. Every so often, she sent one of the runners off with instructions as well, but for the most part, she let Shikamaru call the shots. He was perhaps the greatest military strategist that the village of Konoha had ever produced, and she recognized it. In matters such as this, she had no problem allowing him to take control of the situation.

Shikamaru, for his part, had no trouble being given control either. He remained as lazy as ever, but he was a ninja of his village. Nodding as he listened, he moved little pieces across his map, his mind making plan after contingency plan. He nodded to himself. The troops were almost all into place, just a little longer and everything would be ready. "How much time do we have?"

Naruto simply shrugged. "No id-"

He was cut off by the sounds of explosions from the western edge of the village.

"None."

Nodding, Shikamaru wiped the sweat from his brow. Looking up at his leader, he smiled weakly. "We can survive this, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade wore one of her looks which spelled instant death for any who opposed her. She barely nodded at the Nara's remark, before speaking to Naruto. "What now, do you fight with us? I assure you, we will make certain you are rewarded handsomely."

"To hell with fighting for your village. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be happy seeing most of the people in this stupid town die. I've paid back my debt, and now I'm gone."

Tsunade glared at him. "And so we just let you leave? Sure you've warned us, but you have just heard our whole defensive plan. How can we know that you don't just run right for the enemy command post?"

Seething with anger, Naruto let the killer intent roll out of him. The stupid old hag. She dared to question him after what he had just done for her. He should tear out her throat to show her what happened to people that cross him. A growl began to build in his throat. No! He fought the anger down. This was O-baa-chan. In his mind he repeated his old nickname for her, reminding himself why he had come. She was one of the ones he had wanted to warn. He looked at Tsunade, who had been clearly shaken by the killer intent she had felt. In a low tone, he spoke.

"I will only say this once. You will just let me leave because I will kill anyone who tries to stop me. I will not reveal your plans because that was not what I came here for. Good luck defending your worthless village." And with that, Uzumaki Naruto, the Masked Demon - the missing-nin so feared that even enemy villages were wiling to share information on any rumor of weakness they hear, in the hopes someone would be able to bring him down - leapt through the window of the Fifth Hokage's office, and was gone.

O-O-O

Hisashi waited hidden in the trees near the memorial stone. He was getting nervous. He had detected no large amounts of chakra from Naruto, so he was not to attempt a rescue mission, he was merely to wait. He always hated waiting, especially when he could clearly hear the start of a war all around him.

The smell of smoke was beginning to drift up from the village. Closing his eyes, he began to shake. In his mind, it was dark. The dead of night. His clan was running through flames, heading for the main gate. The Hisoka clan had always prided itself on being ready to fight on a moments notice. Tonight, they were proving it. While almost every other ninja the Hidden Sun had to offer was still scrambling to prepare to defend the village, the entirety of Clan Hisoka was already mobilized. They were throwing themselves at the bulk of the enemy forces. The rest of the village had better arrive soon; they weren't going to able to fight alone for long.

A hand on his shoulder nearly gave him a heart attack. Naruto was crouched beside him. It was one of the rare times he had removed his mask for something other than eating or drinking. There was even concern, looking completely out of place, etched across his demonic face. "You alright, Hisashi?"

"I'm fine," the boy reassured him. "Really. So what now, do we join the battle?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. Not our fight. I'm not putting my life on the line for all the people that turned their backs on me."

"But they didn't. At least, not all of them did. I mean, look, I found this over here." In moments, Hisashi had led Naruto to the memorial for him. "Look at this, I remember some of these names from your stories."

Naruto ran a clawed hand over the script, his voice quiet as he read. "Missing for two years on this day… Sakura… Shino… Gaara." His hand paused over the last name.

"They took him back. Of course they did, he could never do anything wrong, could he? Of course they let him back, I'm not surprised. But, he, he carved…" The final name was carved roughly. Tenten's script was carved as well as any artisan could have done. The style of the three names Gaara had added clearly showed they had been carved by a second person, although his sand had done a job equal to Tenten's. But the final name. It looked as though it had been carved into the stone by someone who had never done such a thing before in their life. The job was so poor it was almost illegible.

"Sasuke."

"So, what do we do?" Hisashi's question shook him out of his shock. "Are we going to stay and fight then, Naruto?"

It took a moment of thought before the demonic ninja answered. When he did, his face held the playful look it had so often had as a child. "Nope. We're gonna do exactly what O-baa-chan was afraid I was gonna do." His grin turned predatory as his eyes narrowed into mere slits. "We're gonna run right for the enemy command post."

O-O-O

On a tree topped hill overlooking Konoha, stood three ninja. Staring down, they watched the unfolding carnage below.

"So, we've finally found the target. Should we try to apprehend him now?"

"Negative, there's a war going on down there. We don't need to get involved in that."

"It's probable the best chance of catching him without his friend, or guardian, or whatever you want to call him."

"It's also the best chance of two hundred random hostile ninja catching us. We wait. We've been tailing rumors of him, or rather his friend, for years. Now that we've caught up to them, we won't let them go."

"I can feel the other one's chakra. It looks like they're leaving. We should follow."

"Again, I say no. They won't get too far. We'll wait for this to quiet down before we pursue. I'm not going to risk getting caught by two armies just because we got overanxious at the last moment. We wait. Understood?"

"We wait." The words were spoken in unison. None of them had even bothered lowering their voices for the conversation. They knew no one was around. And besides, it wasn't as though anyone nearby would have been able to understand them.

O-O-O

NOTES

Another horribly late chapter. I'm sorry I always do this to you guys. As always, I'll promise to try and get the next one out quicker, but really, let's not kid ourselves. I always say that, and it never happens. But hey, who knows, maybe it really will for once.

Delais


	7. Chapter 7

Authors Notes 1) I don't own Naruto or its characters.

2) Thank you to my friend Alex for his help.

3) _Constructive_ criticism is welcomed, as are compliments.

4) The characters are 16 in the first chapter of the story. I have not seen if Sasuke's defection to Sound was successful or not. For the purposes of this story, I am assuming that it was.

O-O-O

"Your ninja aren't moving through the north area fast enough."

"They're encountering a lot more resistance than we initially expected."

"So? Throw some more of the missing-nin in behind them. They're supposed to be our shock troops, aren't they?"

The Rain jounin nodded. "You're right, of course." Motioning to one of his subordinates, he gave the order, before turning back to his companion. "It's too bad we couldn't convince 'The Demon' to join up with us."

The Stone jounin gave a nod. "He would have made things a lot easier. Still, we should focus on what we do have, not waste time worrying about the resources that we could not obtain."

The two leaders of the Stone-Rain invasion force stood in the forest of Konoha, poring over their invasion map. The invasion was not going as well as planned, but they still held the advantage over the Leaf forces. Moving small pieces over the map, they gave their orders, pushing the Leaf ninja back.

The Stone commander paused for a moment, his train of thought interrupted. Something was wrong. He couldn't place it, but there was just something - out of place. He looked left and right, trying to determine what the problem was. Nothing. Everything was fine. Still, something just didn't seem right to him. A voice came to him. It was old, a voice he had not heard in many years. Not since he had been a child, sitting in classes, listening to the instructor drone on in the ninja academy.

_"Humans rarely look up. A ninja should remember this and use it to their advantage."_

Heart sinking, the Stone jounin looked up. Already, he knew the truth; he merely went through the motions of confirming it. Already, a blur was falling towards him. He didn't even have time to finish his warning cry.

The two ninja landed on the leaders of the invasion force. The cloaked one ripped off the face of his opponent, while tearing out his throat. His teammate sunk a katana deep into the skull of his target, withdrawing the blade as the man fell. Rolling to their feet, Naruto and Hisashi came up ready to fight. The Stone-Rain forces were moving to surround them now, cutting off all the escape routes for the duo. Underneath his mask, Naruto lips curled into a smile, revealing his fangs. Foolish ninja. They should be the ones trying to escape from him.

Concentrating, he sent out a wave of chakra made up of a small piece of his demonic energies. He chuckled when the energy reached his opponents. They shifted slightly. None of them wanted to initiate a fight, despite outnumbering him and Hisashi ten to two, but they held firm, thanks to their training. Naruto took the moment to criticize his teammate.

"I keep telling you, Hisashi, katanas aren't ninja weapons."

"They are in my village. Every one of us knew how to use these with the best of them. We were the best of them."

"Just use your usual trick."

"Too many. I'll pass out, or die."

"So we do this the hard way." With a flash, Naruto moved towards one of the ninja surrounding them. Before the man could react, Naruto had slammed a fist into his stomach. The rain-nin doubled over in pain, Naruto's hand still pressed firmly against him.

"Rasengan!"

The Rain-nin literally exploded, pieces of him flying in every direction. The forces arrayed against Naruto and Hisashi were veterans. They had seen just about everything in battle, and they knew the importance of not allowing their concentration to be broken. Still, the spectacle of Naruto blowing one of their teammates apart was enough to cause even the most hardened of them to flick their gaze his way for just a moment. It was in that moment that Hisashi chose to disappear.

The two ninja closest to Naruto leapt away from him, a decision aided largely by three of their companions who were farthest from the demon choosing to launch various wide range offensive jutsus at him.

A cloud of senbon, as well as a barrage of icicles came streaking towards Naruto. Rolling hard to the left, he managed to almost completely dodge the attacks. It was only a single senbon needle that managed to pierce his Achilles tendon. By the time he had completed his roll, his enhanced healing had already managed to force the protruding weapon out of his body, rendering good as new. He was on his feet just in time to catch the final attack full on.

An elemental dragon, much like Kakashi's water dragon, or Sasuke's flame version, caught him square on. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, Naruto noted that this was the first time he had encountered an acid based attack of this type. Leaping with all his strength, he was able to carry himself out of the attack before the damage he suffered was too serious. Landing on a tree branch, he tore off his acid soaked cloak and mask, trying to minimize any further damage. His appearance sent a fresh wave of panic through those he was facing off against.

"By the Kami," one of the Rain-nin cried. "It's actually a demon!" The shock of realizing what they were facing caused those attacking him to pause for a moment, buying him the time his body needed to heal. Below him, the dragon vanished from existance, as its stunned creator forgot to continue funneling chakra to it.

Hisashi took that particular moment to remind the combatants that he was part of the fight. The mystery of where he had gone to was solved as hands of earth shot out of the ground, latching on to one of the Stone ninja, and pulling him into the earth. At the same time, Hisashi came crashing to the surface as well. Leaping out of the ground behind one of the Stone ninja, his katana sliced into the man's back, completely severing the unfortunate shinobi in two.

While Naruto and Hisashi's attacks had whittled down the number of ninja they faced, it had not done much to improve their position. They were now on opposite sides of the battlefield, each one being in the midst of all the shinobi from one of the two invading villages. Hisashi found himself once more in the centre of a group of hostile ninja, the last three Stone fighters forming a triangle around him.

Naruto meanwhile, was dodging for all he was worth. His impressive display with the Rasengan had convinced the four Stone-nin arrayed against him that they did not want to let him get too close to them. He found himself dodging one kunai after the other, his opponents making sure to keep up the barrage so he could not move forwards. He had dodged the first few, and was considering just taking the hits to get into taijutsu range, when the projectiles he had already dodged began detonating. These guys had a lot of explosive tags, and they definitely weren't worried about the cost of replacing them. Gritting his fangs in frustration, he rolled behind a large tree, swearing under his breath.

Hisashi blocked a thrown kunai, and spun gracefully, launching his katana at one of his opponents. Taken aback by the unexpected maneuver, the Stone-nin was barely able to twist his body in time, avoiding the unconventional ranged weapon. Seeing their prey without his impressive weapon, the Stone-nin charged. Racing through the seals, Hisashi clamped his eyes shut, as he called out a warning to his partner.

"Naruto! Light show!"

It was like the Sun-nin exploded in a burst of light. The pupils of those caught unaware shrank smaller than pinpricks, trying to protect themselves from the sudden flash. One of the three fighting Hisashi had his jugular sliced open seconds after the attack, while he was still stunned. The other two were just regaining their sight when they each felt a hand clamp onto their shoulder. Both jerked as a current began to race through their bodies, dropping to the ground as their muscles went spastic.

Having been protected by the tree, as well as his friends warning, Naruto was unaffected by the attack. Rolling out from behind the tree, he found an unpleasant surprise. Two of the ninja had been completely turned away from Hisashi. They had barely been affected by the jutsu at all. Two explosive kunai slammed into him, detonating almost on impact. The demonic ninja fell to the ground, his ribs and internal organs showing. Blood gushed into the air as he screamed. Hisashi was already concentrating, less than a second away from exhausting his chakra to avenge his friend, when the shadow clone vanished.

Twenty Narutos piled out from behind the tree he was using for cover, charging at the shinobi who had tried so hard to keep him at arms length. By now, all four of them were able to fight again; they sent kunai flying at the multitude of targets as they scattered. Within moments, eight Narutos were cut down. Almost instantly, there were thirty more taking their place. Two of the Stone-nin were down in seconds, unable to dodge the initial wave. The third surprised the shadow clones, reversing his retreat to come flying at them. The clones were unprepared for the sudden shift, and began getting decimated as he flew through their ranks. Six clones exploded in smoke as he moved forwards, landing blows on them. The seventh clone was the last standing between him and a break for freedom. To his credit, the Stone-nin landed a good hit to its ribs, before taking a step to continue forward. Rather than vanish in a puff of smoke however, the seventh clone grabbed hold of his arm, and with an impressive twist, tore it completely off of the Stone-nin's body. The Stone jounin had accidentally found the real Naruto.

The last ninja fighting against the two missing-nin managed to evade the attacks of the clones swarming at him. He was a pragmatist, and knew it was time to get away. Within seconds, he had vanished beyond the trees. In all honesty, against a normal jounin, he would have had a damn good chance of getting away. Against a former chuunin who had ended up merging with what was probably the most powerful demon to ever walk his particular plane of existence; not so much. But still, he was good. Naruto didn't even try to toy with him, and he still lived for over a minute.

Hisashi had just finished his kills and retrieved his katana when Naruto reappeared in front of him. It was clear that his demonic friend was still ready for a fight.

"Back to town, then?" As he asked the question, he slid his katana back into its case. Before he could get an answer, there was a massive explosion from the west. Hisashi grimaced; Leaf forces probably weren't setting off explosions inside their own village deliberately, so it was doubtful the blast signified anything good for the side they were attempting to aid.

Naruto's face also held a worried scowl as he answered his partner's previous inquiry. "Oh yeah, back to town."

O-O-O

"Damn it," Jiraiya shouted, his ears ringing from the blast. "Are you alright, Gamabunta? What the hell happened there?" He rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear the smoke from them.

"I'm fine. If I had to guess, I'd say that our fireball found a broken gas line or two, Jiraiya."

Cursing, the sannin managed to get his eyes to stop watering, and surveyed the damage. What had once been close to two full blocks of the village, were now rubble, with a tremendous cloud of smoke billowing out of them. "Bloody hell, Tsunade's going to kill me when she sees this. At least we took out that scorpion, though."

"Well-" Gamabunta's response was cut short as he was forced into a quick jump backwards as wickedly barbed tail came shooting out of the smoke at him. Landing, the giant toad quickly snatched his dagger out of its sheath, taking on a defensive position. The wind finally began removing the smoke from the explosion, revealing an ebony black scorpion that rivaled the great toad in size. It snapped its claws, hissing in anger.

"Useless little rats! Do you have any idea how much that hurt?"

"Okay then," Jiraiya's voice deadpanned. "The rider's gone. So we killed the summoner, but not the summon."

Gamabunta shifted his dagger to an offensive position . "No worries. I'll take care of it."

Both of the summoned animals dashed towards each other. As they neared, the scorpion's tail came cutting in low, only to be knocked away by a downward parry from Gamabunta's dagger. The toad quickly shifted his grip, sending the blade plunging towards the other animal's face. Both sets of claws clamped down on the blade, immobilizing it, as the scorpion again sent his tail at Gamabunta. This time, aimed at the toad's head.

Jiraiya stopped that attack, both hands grabbing onto the tail just below the deadly, stinging blade. Shaking with exertion, the sannin managed to hold the summoned monster's tail up for the moment, keeping it from piercing the flesh of his ally.

O-O-O

Sasuke crouched on a rooftop, looking at the battle Jiraiya and Gamabunta had found themselves in. He should go to help. It was his duty; he had re-sworn his loyalty to Konoha and the Hokage. Not for the first time, he found himself trembling with anger as he remembered Tsunade's words.

_"Your clan is dead, Sasuke, and you have failed in your quest for revenge. You were too weak to kill your brother. Too weak to carry out his orders. And now, you will be executed for your crimes against Konoha." The Hokage paused in her speech, giving Sasuke a vindictive smile. Behind the bars of his cell, the final Uchiha merely stared at her, refusing to give her any satisfaction with a response. Undaunted, Tsunade continued._

_Your clan will be remembered as weak fools, who failed to recognize the threat within their own ranks, and paid for that failure with their lives. You will be the sniveling coward whom your worthless traitor brother deemed too weak to bother killing. The one who betrayed his friends in a failed attempt at vengeance, and who was eventually put out of his misery. And that, Uchiha Sasuke, will be the legacy of your clan._

_Unless of course, you take our offer. Re-swear loyalty to your home village. We offer you a final chance to serve us loyally and well. Who knows; if you do a good enough job, perhaps the Uchiha will be remembered in some small positive way. The choice is yours, Sasuke. I'll leave now so you can consider it._

Howling with anger, Sasuke sprang to his feet. Looking into the street below, he saw a young genin darting from cover to cover. One of the messenger corps, no doubt. Vanishing from the rooftop, he appeared in front of the startled youth. "Do you know who I am?"

Dumbfounded and alarmed, the shocked boy could only nod. Satisfied, Sasuke continued. "Then I suggest you shut up and pay attention." Thrusting his right arm down, he braced it with his left and concentrated. "Chidori!" Glaring at the genin, he continued. "See how I braced my arm?" The trembling boy nodded. "Good," Sasuke thrust his left arm down into the same position the right had just been. "Brace this arm for me."

O-O-O

Jiraiya's arms felt like lead. He had been holding the scorpion's tail for over a minute now. Rather than attempt a new attack, the scorpion seemed dedicated to overpowering the sannin. As Jiraiya franticly searched for a way for him and Gamabunta to defeat the beast, the chirping of birds came to his ears.

O-O-O

Sasuke leapt off the rooftop, landing on the enemy summon. A chidori in each hand, he raced up the back of the scorpion, plunging one of the lightening attacks into the back of its head. The chidori barely sank into the scoprion's flesh before dissipating; its energy spent piercing through the animal's diamond hard exoskeleton.

The scorpion screamed in pain. Its tail snapped back like a whip, sending Jiraiya sailing headlong into a nearby building. The tail whistled through the air, as the scorpion attacked the ninja perched on its back. Ignoring the danger, Sasuke sent his second chidori into the wound that his first had created. The chidori sunk deep into the wound, tearing through flesh to sever the delicate nerves running down the scorpions back. At the same moment, the tail slammed it Sasuke, running clear through him.

The enemy scorpion disappeared, defeated, in a puff of smoke. A wide hole through his body, Sasuke tumbled down. He was barely aware that Gamabunta caught him before he hit the ground.

Carefully holding the mortally wounded ninja, Gamabunta grabbed Jiraiya, who also seemed to be out of it. His powerful muscles firing, the toad gave a great bound, aiming for the Konoha hospital.

O-O-O

Shikamaru barked orders to his runners, his normally calm face anxious as he stood over the battle map. On all sides of him, people shouted to one another. The Nara genius stood in the center of the tumult, attempting to keep control of the situation.

"ANBU report a lessening of enemy attacks in the northern sector!"

"Maito Gai and his former students have regained control of the market square!"

"Two Arabume report that they are attempting to reinforce the Inazuka Kiba's squad."

"The eastern side of the village is still mostly under enemy control. As far as we can tell, Hyuuga Hinata and Hataka Kakashi are still fighting behind enemy lines! Messanger corps ninja are unable to get through the heavy fighting to make contact with them."

The rapidly flowing information would have overwhelmed many people, but Shikamaru processed all the information as quickly as it was spoken. Almost instantly, he was barking out orders.

"Tell the ANBU to keep up the pressure in the northern sector, don't let the enemy breathe. Get two chuunin teams in to reinforce Team Gai. Tell them to expect a counterattack. Try to stop the Arabume, they can't go in alone! And damn it, get Hinata and Kakashi out of that deathtrap they're in!"

"Need some assistance?"

The voice startled Shikamaru. Quickly he recognized it as The Masked Demon, the most wanted missing-nin in the known world, the one who had warned the village of this very attack. He had come back.

"What-" Shiakamaru's voice died the second he turned to look at the new arrivals. Every person in the command post was staring in shock and fear. Hisashi stood beside Naruto, but it was doubtful his presence even registered in the minds of those he and Naruto had come to help. All eyes were drawn to his partner. Naruto had lost his cloak and mask in their last battle, and was now dressed only in a basic black ninja uniform. For the first time in years, he stood undisguised before people, allowing them to see what he was.

He stood close to six and a half feet tall, a far change from his childhood spent being one of the shortest people his age. His hands now resembled claws, with wicked nails stretching from each finger. His lips were drawn back revealing a mouth filled with fangs. His eyes no longer held the blue orbs they once did; now containing the black slit pupils of a predator, resting on blood red irises. The whisker marks on his face were wider now, and his once pure blond hair had streaks of red running through it. It took a several moments to realize this however, as one generally found their attention first drawn to the two long fox tails wrapping and unwrapping themselves from around his waist.

Shikamaru had long known about Naruto's containment of the Kyuubi. He was a genius after all, and it didn't take too much work to figure out why the boy that every adult hated was pulling red chakra out of his body every so often. He had never said anything to anyone, figuring the Hokage wouldn't let Naruto be a ninja if the risk was too great, and respecting the fact that his friend obviously did not want anyone his age to know about his prisoner. Once he overcame his surprise, he recognized who he was looking at.

"Naruto."

"Shikamaru. We gutted the enemy command post," a growl escaped his lips as he spoke. "I'm going to go save Hinata and Kakashi."

Shikamaru found himself nodding numbly, still too shocked to act with his usual clarity. "Sure. Tell them to pull out to the new line, and reinforce the ninja there." He spoke calmly, almost as though his mind had left his body alone, so it could solve some other problem.

Naruto and Hisashi turned to leave, but Shikamaru called out to them again.

"Wait! Would- would the two of you split up?"

"Why?" The question came out as a suspicious snarl.

"Shino has gone to rescue Kiba. I think he'll need help, and I have no one to spare."

Hisashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, stopping him before he could answer. "We came to help. If we're needed in different places, fine. Just give me a guide."

Naruto looked at his only friend, clearly not liking the idea. Hisashi met his gaze, refusing to back down. "Go save your old sensei."

"… Don't get killed."

O-O-O

The Stone ninja dropped dead to the ground. Overtop of him, Kakashi stood, slowly rubbing his wrist. He heard the death cry of Hinata's opponent as well. There were no enemies about. It seemed as though he and Hinata were to enjoy their first moment to catch their breath in over an hour. He looked at his companion, who had discarded her weighted jacket long ago. She was breathing heavily, holding her side where a rather powerful taijustsu ninja had scored a hit on her.

"Hinata, I really think we should abandon this position."

The Hyuuga jounin instantly shook her head. "Do whatever you want, Kakashi, but I'm staying. Our orders were to hold this position on the line."

Before they could continue, they each felt a distinctive chakra pulse. Someone was trying to use a genjutsu on them, an attempt that was instantly doomed to failure due to the powers contained in their eyes. Both Konoha ninja fell back into combat stances, ready for trouble.

The genjutsu ended as clearly as it had started. Kakashi, puzzled, glanced over at Hinata. She seemed just as confused as he was. Quickly, he went back to attempting to spot any danger.

"There's no one but us left in the line, Hinata. We should fall back."

"I said I would hold this position, Kakashi, and I will. I gave my word, and I'm not taking it back. That's my way of the ninja."

"That's a good ninja way, but it's still time to leave!" The new voice seemed to ring out from all sides, startling both Hinata and Kakashi. Suddenly, they found a new ninja dropping near them. His appearance caused both of them to swallow in surprise.

"Shikamaru's orders. I'm supposed to get you two to pull back to some new line that was set up. By the way, I caught some idiot who was using a genjutsu on you."

Nodding numbly, Kakashi realized that this stranger, he was trying desperately not to hope it was who he suspected, had blood dripping from his han- from his claws.

Naruto surveyed the two of them, feeling the bloodlust from his last kill fade, to slowly be replaced with apprehension. His old sensei, and the quiet weird girl who had always been nice to him, even though she never seemed to be able to talk. He wanted to say it was good to see them again, that he was sorry he had been gone for so long, but the words just wouldn't come out. What would they think? What would they say? Kakashi would know what he was. Would he decide Naruto was what the villagers had always been afraid he would become? And what about Hinata? She didn't know about the Kyuubi. What would she think? Naruto shook his head, trying to dispel the fears. He could feel anger beginning to grow within him again. Whenever he became scared, he started to get angry. It was the demon's instincts. He just couldn't help it.

"Let's go!" Naruto's roar cut through the silence, as he tried to purge the anger and fear from his body. "Move it! I tore a lot of guys apart, but there's still a lot more."

"Nar… Naruto-k- kun. Is, is that you?" Hinata winced at her voice. She hadn't talked like that for years, but she was so confused. Was it really him? Alive, and here, after so many years? Why had he left, and what had happened to him? She was almost shaking. She couldn't be like this. She had to show him she wasn't weak.

"It is." He seemed nervous for some reason. But he was here. He had come back. Why? She had to know why he had come back. Dimly, her mind registered something about Kakashi shouting something at her about it not being the time, but he too seemed shocked by his old students return. It was just too much for any of them to handle. Everything seemed awkward and forced. Of the three reunited ninja, not one of them could properly handle the situation.

"What- what happened to you?" She regretted the question almost before she had finished it. Anger and hurt flashed across Naruto's face. He thought she was afraid of him.

"I came to help you all because you people used to be my friends! Just link up with your comrades, I don't care what you think of me anymore!" He clenched his fists together so hard that his claws cut deep gouges into his palms. His blood flowed freely down his fingers to drip onto the ground.

"Our comrades, Naruto. Yours as well." Kakashi spoke calmly, doing his best to draw his former student's attention. His mind was a mess of emotions at the moment, but he was handling it better than the other two. He didn't know what was going on, but Hinata was almost in tears, and it seemed like Naruto was almost ready to attack her.

"I see how you all look at me! I hate this place!" Naruto was out of control. As far as he was concerned, every one of his fears about returning home was coming true. Everyone was afraid of him. He would be hunted down and killed now that they knew about him. His demonic instincts were raging, screaming for blood. He was seconds away from making the worst mistake of his life, when the Stone-nins saved the day.

A group of Stone ninja came over the rooftops, killer intent radiating strongly out of them. Before Naruto or the others could react, a kunai embedded itself right into the center Hinata's ribs, with enough force to knock her off her feet. Her eyes wide in surprise, she began to fall, giving out a cough as she did. Blood splashed out of her mouth and onto her chest.

Eyes wide, Naruto stared. His mind raced back to the preliminary bouts for the third round of his first chuunin exam. He remembered the pride he had felt for the little girl, that like himself, refused to give up. The horror he felt as he saw her vomit blood onto the ground, and realized how seriously injured she was. And then, as suddenly as him mind had traveled back in time, he was in the present again, looking at an injured Hinata. In his unbalanced state, it was just the trigger needed to push him over the edge.

"You hurt my friend!" His scream was filled with surprise and terror, before changing to a tone of pure hatred. "I'll kill all of you!"

Kakashi grabbed Hinata and ran for both of their lives. Behind him, screams of both rage and pain tore through the air.

O-O-O

Kiba gritted his teeth, trying to stand up. A strong hand, pressed against his chest, kept him pinned to the ground. He glared at his old teammate, still trying to regain his footing. "Let go of me. I need to fight."

"No," Shino spoke in the same emotionless tone he always used, whether he was ordering dinner, or trying to save someone's life. "You need to lie down, and let me bandage the hole in your chest, so that you stop bleeding."

"Damn it! Akamaru's still fighting, I can't let him fight alone."

"He is not fighting alone. My sister is battling with him, and the other two members of your squad didn't get hit as bad as you."

"They aren't strong enough." Kiba was still trying to wrestle his way out of his friend's pin.

"Kira is. I gave her most of my kikai bugs. And the others will just have to hold their own. Now sit still, so I can treat you."

"But-"

"Lie down!" Kiba had kept track of the number of times he had heard Shino yell over the years. This marked the seventh such occasion. Giving up, he relaxed on the ground.

O-O-O

Arabume Kira danced away from her pursuer, doing her best to keep him from realizing he was being led. The missing-nin she was baiting seemed all too willing to play the fool. Kira was by far the most expressive member of the Arabume clan, but she was still a member of the Arabume clan. Throughout Konoha, they were known for two things. The first, was the bugs that lived within their skin, aiding them in battle. The second, was the dead emotionless stare that seemed to be their default expression. Kira easily kept that mask up, not giving the missing-nin any indication that the little kunoichi chuunin he was fighting was leading him into a trap.

There! His back was turned to the shadows of the alley; he seemed completely unaware of the allies she had concealed in the darkness.

The kikai bugs swarmed over the unsuspecting missing-nin. Thousands of them dug into his skin, drawing the chakra out of it. Usually, once a wave of the Arabume clan's bugs swarmed over someone, the person was doomed. Every once in a while, an enemy ninja might hold a ninjutsu that could defeat the bugs, usually something that was fire or teleportation based, but it rarely mattered. The enemy only had a couple seconds to perform the jutsu, and it was nearly impossible with all the bugs ripping through their flesh and leeching their chakra. It took an exceptional ninja to escape the Arabume trap once it had been sprung. The missing-nin currently being devoured was competent; of that there was no doubt. But he was far from exceptional. Soon, only a husk remained.

Crouching near the shriveled corpse, Kira allowed the bugs to climb back into her body. She'd have to remember to thank her uncle. He was the one who had first shown her how to perfect that trick.

She spun at the sound of someone landing behind her, willing her bugs back out. It was too late, however. A heavy blow sent her tumbling across the missing-nin's body. Rolling quickly to her feet, she surveyed her newest attacker. This new threat proved to be a Rain-nin with an ugly scar running across his face. It looked as though she would have trouble fighting with this one.

Unless, of course, she never had to fight him at all. Akamaru slammed into him from behind, howling as his body spun. The lone gaatsuga attack could have been stronger had Kiba added his own, but it still got the job done fine. The last thing the Rain-nin felt was the incredible pain of his body being shredded.

"Good boy, Akamaru! Once we get out of this, I'm buying you a whole bunch of treats."

The Akita barked happily, wagging its tail at the suggestion. Akamaru liked this girl. She was related to one of Kiba's old teammates, and whenever she saw him, she was always sure to scratch his ears and spoil him.

"Get back to Kiba, and my brother. I don't like leaving them too unguarded. I'll be along in a moment." With a nod of his head and a yip, Akamaru bounded down the street, off to make sure the two men they were trying to protect were still safe.

Kira took a moment to survey the street, and surrounding rooftops. She paused, her eyes flicking back to the corner of a storefront window. Something just didn't feel right. Nervously, she looked around. Everything seemed fine, but still… it was off somehow.

She sent bugs flying out in every direction, while taking a purely defensive stance. It didn't take long for several of the bugs to return, complaining that something didn't make sense to them. Facing the area her bugs had pointed out, Kira formed her hands into the seal needed for one of the earliest ninjutsu she had been taught. "Dispel."

The genjutsu before her flickered and vanished. What had once been a large advertising poster plastered on a storefront, was now a tall, scrawny kunoichi. The woman wore a Rain forehead protector, along with a jounin vest. Slowly, she clapped her hands.

"Nicely done. I'm impressed by the way you used your bugs against the missing-nin. And it was certainly surprising to see an Inazuka dog fighting alongside an Arabume kunoichi. Interesting."

Kira spat on the ground. At the moment, she didn't really feel like keeping up her clans calm façade. "Damn it, how many of you are there? Every time I beat one of you, I end up finding another. What does it take to get rid of all of you?"

The malnourished woman before her laughed. "Oh, my dear. It will take more than your pathetic village has. You're fighting against the combined might of two villages, along with just about every missing-nin on the continent. Your stupid village has no chance alone."

"They aren't alone!" The new voice drew the attention of both kunoichi. A lean, black haired youth stood on the rooftop of the building the Rain-nin was relaxing against. He held a katana in his right hand. With an easy flip, he tumbled to the ground, landing between them. Confidently, he pointed the katana at the Rain-nin. "They have a couple of freelancers."

Glancing over his shoulder, he winked at Kira, "I imagine you're one of the Arabume I'm supposed to back up. I already found your clanmate. He's ready to move out with the injured shinobi he was attending to. You head out. I'll handle business on this end."

Kira considered for a moment before beginning to depart. As she left, she had a few tracking bugs slip out of her wrist, and sent them to try to sneak onto the new arrival. His presence seemed a bit too convenient.

Hisashi grinned as he stared down the Rain-nin. "Genjutsu user, eh? It's rare to come across someone focused primarily in that field. This might be fun."

"I doubt it," the kunoichi drawled at him. "It's rare to find someone who actually knows how to defeat my more complicated illusions. They're really quite good." The kunoichi's entire body began to droop. It looked as though she was melting right before Hisashi's eyes. "The one I cast while you were chatting with that little Arabume is one of my favorites. It's nearly unbreakable."

All around Hisashi, the world seemed to begin to melt. The streets, the buildings, his katana, even the air around him seemed to be dripping like wax. A wave of vertigo struck Hisashi. The blob that was previously the Rain-nin blurred in front of him. Before he could react, he felt a deep gouge open along his arm. His katana tumbled into the blurred mass that had been the street.

Stumbling back, Hisashi clamped a hand over his wrist, trying to stem the worst of the bleeding. He always hated having to use his bloodline in desperation. The extra chakra drain from using it made it a very poor last resort. His eyes flashed to the yellow hue they always took when he used his clan's power. Surges of electricity sizzled out of his body in all directions. He poured the energy into the air, trying to disrupt the jutsu he was trapped in. It worked. The illusion fell away to reveal a very surprised Rain-nin standing before him. She leapt back, surprise across her face.

"What the hell?" She was running through seals as she growled the question at him.

Hisashi allowed himself a small smile. "My clan's bloodline ability." Without another word, he mustered all the chakra he had left in his body to send a bolt of lightening at her, just as she finished her seals.

It was Hisashi's turn to find an unpleasant surprise. Several in fact. The lightening bolt struck home, and dissipated harmlessly in front of him. His eyes widened in shock. The Rain-nin gave a wide grin. "I'm more than familiar with your clan, Hisoka bastard." Hisashi gasped, her words had come in his childhood language. "I spent a little time in the west, when my village decided to try and find new allies. I had contact against your clan all those years ago, and I developed this protective ninjutsu just for when I had to deal with you worthless pieces of shit." The kunoichi threw back her head and laughed as Hisashi collapsed.

She strode forwards confidently, kneeling down to grasp Hisashi's throat. With an evil grin, she began to squeeze. She could feel her hand tingle as she began to choke the life out of her opponent. "Poor little fool. Your ninjutsu don't work, you're all out of chakra, and you can't fight with an arm all torn open. What are you to do?"

On the ground, Hisoka Hisashi choked, trying to gain air. With effort, he gasped out a few words. "Last- last of my clan."

"Is that so?" The tingling had spread up the Rain-nin's arm. She supposed it was the last attempt the boy had at trying to muster up a jutsu with his bloodline limit. "Well, I guess you're about to see your entire family again."

"Mother… was last- of her clan, too." The Rain-nin frowned. Something was definitely wrong, she had just realized. Her grip began to loosen from Hisashi's throat. She was running out of chakra.

The last ninja of the Hidden Sun grabbed the Rain-nin's hand, pulling it off of his throat, but keeping a firm hold on it. Hisashi glared at the panicking kunoichi. "Both of my parents gave me their bloodline limits."

Shit! He was draining her chakra right out of her body. Was that son of a bitch kidding? Two bloodline limits?

With her free hand, the Rain-nin made a fist, and slammed it into Hisashi's face. The blow cracked his head back against the ground, but he kept his grip. Another blow connected, weaker than the first, but it still hurt like hell. Hisashi tried to bring his gashed arm up to block, but the muscles were too damaged. Gritting his teeth, he took blow after blow. The punches were growing weak. All he had to do was hang on a little longer. After a few more hits, the blows stopped; the Rain-nin collapsing overtop of his body. Still, Hisashi hung on, not releasing his grip until after he felt the final wisps of chakra flowing into his body. Groaning, he pushed the Rain-nin off of him, and tried to sit up.

His head exploded in bursts of pain. His eyes rolled backwards, and when he opened them, he was lying back on the ground. He had his chakra back, but now he had a concussion at the least. On top of that, while the tear through his arm had pretty much stopped bleeding, he was dizzy from all the blood he had already lost. His vision started to blur. It looked like he wasn't going anywhere for a while.

"Well, well. Looks like coming into the village after him turned out to be a good idea." Hisashi almost cried. The new voice was still speaking his language, not the one he had learned from Naruto since coming to this continent. Two faces leaned over him, it was hard to make out any features, as he was looking up into the sun, but he knew who they had to be.

"Hey there, boy. Quite a chase we've had to go through to find you. Bet you thought you had got away clean, didn't you?"

"We've got to get out of here, now!" Yet another new voice emerged, this one coming from the same direction the two standing over Hisashi had called from. "Four teams of Konoha ninja coming right at us."

"What?" The man standing above Hisashi was clearly infuriated. "Damn it, grab the kid and let's go."

"No, leave him. They're headed straight here - either for him or us. We need to get out of here fast! I told you guys that entering this village was too risky right now."

"But we have him!"

"He'll slow us down too much. Move."

"Shit!" The ninja who was standing over Hisashi glared down at him. "We'll get you later." And then, in a flash, they were gone.

Hisashi lay on the ground, not understanding. They were running? Konoha ninja were coming to save him? It made no sense.

He heard the sounds of ninja landing all around him, and then, someone else was standing above him. This one leaned down over him, her head blocking the sun and making her face visible.

"Hey there," cried the exuberant Arabume kunoichi. "A little bug told me you were having trouble with that Rain-nin you said you could beat!"

Despite everything that had just happened to him, Hisashi couldn't help but smile. "She wasn't so bad. It was those others…" His voice trailed off as his eyes slid closed. The last thing that registered in his brain was the voice of one of the Konoha ninjas.

"Ah, damn. Looks like we better get him to the medic-nins."

O-O-O

NOTES AND AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Well, this chapter came somewhat quicker than the last. Only a two month gap. I am emboldened by my success to state I will try to have the next out in a month and a half. Also, Alex the Editor is back, so anyone who noticed an increase in grammar skills this chapter has him to thank.

This Is The Important Part!

I feel bad about the fact I don't always answer a lot of the questions people ask. I used to send a personal answer to every person that asked, but I'm getting too many to do that now. However, lately I have received a few private messages where people have said they are confused about what is going on, so I guess I need to answer again.

One week from the day this chapter is posted, I will make a new post. It will not be Chapter 8, but the answer to every question I receive from now until next week. I have always tried to avoid answering the questions inside the story, or writing Authors Notes like this, because I feel it is bad to artificially pad the word count of the story. Still, I feel I've become a real jackass on not answering questions for everyone, so I'm sorry I haven't taken the time to respond to everyone who took the time to write to me, and I'll do this as way of an apology.


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